Selects: How Fever Dreams Work

4:51Chuck Bryant:Okay. And he would go with like$15 and buy, you know, like giant sweet tarts.

4:58Josh Clark:Mm-hmm. You know, those big chewable ones. Sure. And like Fun Dip and Nerds and just all kinds of candy.

5:07Chuck Bryant:Fun Dip or Licamade? It was the same thing, I think. Yeah. It was just a sugar stick that you dip in sugar.

5:13Josh Clark:Right.

5:14Chuck Bryant:Like, I don't have a foot, but I've got my Licamade. Oh, man. Can you guys out there in podcast land tell we're stalling? Because we are big time because we happen upon a topic that no one really knows what's what. Yeah. I mean, we're talking about fever dreams. We know about fevers. Yep. Kind of know about dreams.

5:39Josh Clark:Yeah.

5:40Chuck Bryant:But apparently no one's really gotten to work on figuring out what fever dreams themselves are. So it's largely anecdotal.

5:49Josh Clark:Yeah.

5:50Chuck Bryant:So you're going to have to bear with us on this.

5:52Josh Clark:We'll leave that there for now. Yeah. But I guess a good place to start is by talking about both those things separately. And starting with fevers, you know, you've always heard 98.6 Fahrenheit is the normal internal body temperature of a human. In 92, there was a big study that said it's really 98.2. What? depending on like how old you are, what time of day it is, what you're doing, where you, if you put it in your butt or under your armpit or in your mouth or in your ear.

6:28Chuck Bryant:Or all of them at once.

6:30Josh Clark:That'd be something else. It can vary a little bit. So I think there's a bit of a slight sliding scale to that number.

6:37Chuck Bryant:Yeah, for sure. But I think the key is, is it's going to be roughly around there. and even if you have an average body temperature that's not exactly 98.6, let's say you typically tend toward 97.5.

6:53Josh Clark:You run cooler.

6:54Chuck Bryant:Yeah.

6:54Josh Clark:Yeah.

6:55Chuck Bryant:Your body temperature is still during the average day going to fluctuate plus or minus about a degree Fahrenheit either way.

7:01Josh Clark:Yeah, so I looked a little bit into the 98.6 and the original dude that came up with that was a German physician named Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich. That was good. That was a good one. When? 1868, he wrote a book. Well, he did his studies where he had this temperature rod. He would stick under the armpits of all these people. He's like, where do you want this? Exactly, and everyone once said... Everyone always says armpit. You know the comedian Rory Scovel? No. You should just check him out. Okay. He does these weird things. Like he'll just do his whole routine with a German accent. Okay. Like for no reason whatsoever.

7:44Chuck Bryant:I like the sound of that.

7:45Josh Clark:And he did one about stealing old people. Like kidnapping old people for the German accent. He's from South Carolina, I think, but he's done shows with like a severe southern accent and then one just normal accent and then he'll do a German thing.

8:02Chuck Bryant:He just likes to mess with people?

8:03Josh Clark:I guess so. He's great.

8:04Chuck Bryant:I will check him out. Thanks, man. He's one of my favorites.

8:06Josh Clark:So anyway, 1868, he wrote a book called, after these experiments, called Das Verhalten der Erkenfarmer in Krankenheiten.

8:18Chuck Bryant:That is good.

8:19Josh Clark:And I looked, it's funny, the real translation I think of that is on the temperature in diseases, but if you type it in Google Translate, it comes out as the behavior of the intrinsically warm in sick units.

8:35Chuck Bryant:that's the subtitle yeah yeah so anyway he's a guy that came up in 98.6 and that stood for a long time but that's just so that was just based on his observations his study and it stuck it was

8:48Josh Clark:an average it wasn't like this is what you should be it was just the average of all these people

8:52Chuck Bryant:right and then 130 years later we finally got around to verifying whether that was actually true or not.

9:00Josh Clark:Well, I mean, it says in 92 that they said it was 98.2 from another study, but then everything I still read says 98.6.

9:07Chuck Bryant:All right. I know what you're talking about, though. I had heard in the last few years that they're like that 98.6 jazz is kind of made up. Right. So the point is, is that your body is going to be roughly somewhere around there, right? That's your normal body temperature. Yes. And then depending on the time of day, it's either going to be a little cooler than that or a little warmer than that. And our body temperature is regulated by something called the hypothalamus. And like I said, depending on the time of day, your body temperature is going to fluctuate. And that's tied to sleep apparently.

9:41Chuck Bryant:So as your body temperature is rising, usually in the late afternoon is about where it peaks during the day, that's associated with wakefulness, alertness. Not necessarily just having a high body temperature, but an incline in the temperature in your body means you're awake, you're alert, you're ready to go, right? Yeah, ready for action. Once it starts to decline, that's associated with drowsiness, and it hits its trough. Your body temperature is at its lowest right about before you wake up. Right. And that's actually associated with REM sleep. Yeah. So there are some stuff starting to come out.

10:20Chuck Bryant:Just bear with us, everybody. We're laying the groundwork. So your body temperature changes. The hypothalamus is directing the whole thing. And sleep and wakefulness has something to do. It's related to your body temperature changes. All right. Good night. You take it from here.

10:39Josh Clark:Well, you know what? Let's take a break because I'm not sure where I should go. We'll be right back.

10:59Hey, everybody.

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13:54Josh Clark:Okay, I was being coy. You set the stage very nicely.

13:59Chuck Bryant:Okay. So if your body gets, let's say some bad bacteria gets in it. Yeah.

14:06Josh Clark:and your body is alerted, warning, intruder is coming. Your immune system kicks into gear and starts producing this biochemical material called a pyrogen.

14:20Chuck Bryant:Okay. This is my new favorite thing the body does.

14:25Josh Clark:Oh, yeah? Yeah. Well, you knew that before, right? Or did you just not know the mechanism?

14:30Chuck Bryant:I mean, I knew humans get fevers, and I knew the fever was to kind of like cook out everything. I didn't understand the mechanism, I guess, to answer your question.

14:37Josh Clark:Well, take this part then.

14:39Chuck Bryant:Oh, yeah? Can I? Yeah. So these pyrogens, right, they are these biochemical markers that are released by the immune system in the body. Yeah. Or, and this is why I love this, there's some bacteria, some pathogens that make humans sick that produce pyrogens naturally.

14:58Josh Clark:Yeah.

14:58Chuck Bryant:So when they show up, they just start releasing them and they just give themselves away. Yeah, they're big dummies in that way. Right. They're like, hey, where's the party? They kick open the door. Yeah, pretty much. They're carrying like a pony keg under one arm. Yeah. Their gut's sticking out. It's just, that's like that kind of bacteria, right? Uh-huh. So the pyrogens enter the bloodstream and they travel to the hypothalamus. Because remember, the hypothalamus controls your body temperature. And this is what they do, Chuck. Are you ready for what the pyrogens do? Yes. They go to your hypothalamus and they dampen the heat-sensing neurons in the hypothalamus.

15:39Chuck Bryant:And they excite the cold-sensing neurons in your hypothalamus. And they trick your hypothalamus into thinking your body's suddenly gotten very, very cold so that your hypothalamus turns the temperature up and says, don't let any of this heat out. We got to warm back up. It tricks your hypothalamus into creating a fever.

15:58Josh Clark:That's right. And they do this because, well, they don't do this because, but what happens from there, they do this because they're dumb. But what happens from there is, like you said, the fever, what a fever is and why you want that fever for at least a little while. Fever. That it does. It's trying to cook and burn and bake that bacteria until it dies. Right. It is your body's fighting. Like when you hear, you know, like your fever broke, that's usually a good sign. That means that your fever did its job and it's cooked all that bacteria up and you're going to be on the mend soon. So basically that's what's happening.

16:37Josh Clark:And this is the great thing about a fever. But, you know, a fever makes you feel like crap because it's a lot of hard work to kill all those things.

16:46Chuck Bryant:Well, it is. There's a lot of your sympathetic nervous system is kicked into high gear, which I found out is one reason why they say you want to feed a cold starve of fever. Because you don't want to introduce digestion because it requires the parasympathetic nervous system. Right. Right? Fight or flight. And you don't want those two things going on while your body has a fever. It's just a lot of extra work for it, right? But one of the things that is going on when your body has a fever, when that temperature rises, it's hard enough on your organs. But it's also hard on the level, just the fact that they're operating outside of their normal operating temperature.

17:25Chuck Bryant:And that makes it very hard on them. and can actually cook some of the ingredients inside your cells.

17:31Josh Clark:Yeah, I mean, it's like working in too hot of an environment. It's just never fun for anyone.

17:35Chuck Bryant:Right.

17:35Josh Clark:Although I guess some people love that stuff.

17:38Chuck Bryant:Yeah, but they might like it, but they still aren't working fast.

17:42Josh Clark:Yeah, that's true.

17:43Chuck Bryant:You know? They might be happy, but they're slow.

17:45Josh Clark:So if you have a fever, what's considered a fever now in 2017, if you're an adult and your oral temperature is above 100.4, or if your rectal or ear temperature is above 101, then that's considered a fever. If you're a kid, good luck getting anything besides the rectal temperature because it's just tough.

18:08Chuck Bryant:You have basically no right. Well, yeah.

18:12Josh Clark:What you have is wiggly kids who aren't like, sure, stick something in my ear for four seconds.

18:16Chuck Bryant:Yeah.

18:18Josh Clark:But up the kazoo, there's not really anything you can do about that.

18:23Chuck Bryant:All they can do is say, Glavin?

18:25Josh Clark:Yeah, exactly. So the rectal temperature for a kid above 100.4. And with adults, like, you don't have to really worry about your fever too much. If it tops 105 for, you know, any period of time, you probably want to do something about that.

18:44Chuck Bryant:That's what I saw was the 105 degree Fahrenheit mark was about where you should start to worry.

18:49Josh Clark:Yeah, as an adult. And you're going to feel so awful if your temperature is 105. You've probably already been to a doctor at that point.

18:56Chuck Bryant:Let's hope so.

18:57Josh Clark:For kids, it's different, though. If you don't want to let your child get up to 105, that's bad, bad, bad.

19:03Chuck Bryant:So what is it for kids that you really want to start worrying about, did you say?

19:06Josh Clark:You know what? I'm not exactly sure. I mean—

19:09Chuck Bryant:It probably depends on whether you're a first-time parent or this is your second or third kid.

19:14Josh Clark:Yeah. Well, and it varies with the age. You know, it's like zero to 18 months. It's something.

19:19Chuck Bryant:I got you.

19:19Josh Clark:Like what you should do is— Go consult your doctor? Yeah, exactly. But, you know, any kind of temperature you should, for a child, you should kind of be a little more alert about. Right. But we're not medical experts here.

19:31Chuck Bryant:No, we're not. And everything we're saying assumes that you have health care coverage. That's right. All right.

19:38Josh Clark:So that's fever in general. You got anything else on that?

19:42Chuck Bryant:Yeah. One other thing. The pyrogens. Pyro, by the way. It's no mistake. Man, I did have something. No coincidence. No, it's not. What is it? Latin for fire? Greek word for fire. Yeah. Pyro. Eat. Def Leppard. Right? Great song. It really is. The whole album, right?

20:04Josh Clark:The album, yeah.

20:05Chuck Bryant:Yeah, they just mention it in Rock of Ages. Yeah. It comes up. They should have a song called Pyromania. I wonder. But that's pretty cool. It's like the antithesis of your band, your album, and your song all being the same name, like Big Country. Oh, I love that song. Sure, but it's pretty uncreative. You're basically saying, like, here's our basket, and we're going to put every egg we have into it. That's the one thing we came up with. Yeah. I saw a David Spade bit once, and he was complaining. It wasn't even comedy. and he was just complaining that he went and saw Big Country, and they didn't play the song Big Country.

20:44Chuck Bryant:No. Yeah. Really? He's like, it's the name of your band. It's the one song everybody came to see, and they didn't play it.

20:51Josh Clark:He's funny, too.

20:52Chuck Bryant:Well, the long and short of it is I totally forgot what the other thing I had to say about pyrogens was. So I'll probably think of it. Oh, I know what it was. Pyrogens, as your immune system grows and ages and you become a grown-up, the pyrogens have a little less of an effect on you. So where if you're a kid and your immune system is young and inexperienced, your fever is going to shoot up quick and it's going to get hotter faster. So you do want to stay on top of a kid's fever because their immune system is not used to pyrogens coming and messing with their hypothalamus like in adults it is.

21:29Josh Clark:Yeah, it'll spike much faster. That's a good point.

21:31Chuck Bryant:That's what I was trying to think of.

21:32Josh Clark:Yeah, that's true. You need to take that rectal temperature. way more than you're comfortable with.

21:40Chuck Bryant:I don't recall that ever having been done to me.

21:43Josh Clark:Well, because you don't remember being a baby.

21:46Chuck Bryant:No, but my parents were pretty strict. Pretty stern.

21:50Josh Clark:No, I mean, by the time a kid is old enough to where you can say, like, hey, put this under your tongue or hold still for a minute while I put this in your ear.

21:58Chuck Bryant:Yeah.

21:58Josh Clark:But pre that, when they're not sentient humans and they're just, you know, crying, whiny little sacks of flesh. I got you. You got to stick it right up the butt.

22:07Chuck Bryant:Okay.

22:09Josh Clark:Carrie's laughing

22:10Chuck Bryant:She almost spit out her shawarma salad

22:12Josh Clark:Carrie's done plenty of that So she knows Okay, so Into dreams I always think we've done a general show on dreams I think we did, finally I didn't find it What? Still? No, I saw Lucid Dreaming Can you control your dreams?

22:30Chuck Bryant:That's the same thing, wasn't it? I think that was the same episode But no, we did one on dreams I didn't see it. Wow. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Well.

22:44Josh Clark:This contributes to the little by little. Someone will know.

22:48Chuck Bryant:Okay.

22:48Josh Clark:Jill Hurley, where are you when we need you? Our statistician, the minister of stats.

22:53Chuck Bryant:Right.

22:54Josh Clark:All right. Well, we'll talk about dreams a bit here then, even though we've explained this in various episodes here and there to some degree. But dreams, you know, if you're a psychologist, you really love to spend time talking and dissecting dreams, interpreting dreams. If you're more into the neurology side of science, you don't really care about that kind of stuff. In fact, for many years, they thought it was called activation synthesis hypothesis, which was you go to sleep and all these synapses are just randomly firing and they don't really add up to even a story. You just do that when you wake up because you're human.

23:38Josh Clark:But that, I mean, that's complete BS.

23:40Chuck Bryant:Well, you almost get the impression that they came up with this and the neurologists came up with it to stake out their territory in response to years of psychoanalysts saying, this is what dreams are. They're like tapping into the collective unconscious or they're your repressed memories. Neuroscience said, no, nothing. They're just your stupid wet brain going crazy while you sleep.

24:05Josh Clark:Yeah, which we all know now is not true.

24:07Chuck Bryant:I saw another one too. What's that? Threat simulation theory. Have you heard of that one?

24:13Josh Clark:No, but that's a great band name.

24:14Chuck Bryant:Basically, it's your training to be a ninja while you sleep. Like your brain is running threat simulations. Constantly. So that it's like working itself out, like getting more and more agile and quick. Interesting. So you can get better at running from a saber-toothed tiger.

24:32Josh Clark:Right.

24:32Chuck Bryant:If you actually encounter it.

24:34Josh Clark:I could see that early on maybe.

24:36Chuck Bryant:Sure. And there is an evolutionary advantage to it. So evolutionarily speaking, it would make sense. the point is that one came along and was like no there's obviously some reason for dreams it's not just random yeah well and then maybe I could have seen that

24:53Josh Clark:early on but then at some point someone around the fire had a dream about Tuk Tuk's wife and woke up and went whoa there was no saber tooth tiger in that dream I'm not sure what that meant but I better not tell Tuk Tuk

25:07Chuck Bryant:and then they went what's a rectal thermometer It hasn't even been invented yet.

25:13Josh Clark:So these days they've done actual studies with EEG machines and MRI machines. And especially in Italy, these Italian researchers basically put people to sleep. Not put them to sleep. In a sleeper hole. They lay them down in a nice Italian bed, feed them some pasta fazool. Get out the rectal thermometer. Yep. And they hook them up to all these wires and machines. and then they will wake them up at different points in the night and say, hey, what were you dreaming of? We'd like to talk about it and study what was going on with these machines.

25:49Chuck Bryant:Right. And they actually, what they found supports the current, the prevailing theory. I don't think it was their theory. I think it was around, but their research supports it, called affect regulation theory, which is basically that we control our emotions or we process our emotions through our dreams. Yeah. And these Italians found support for this in that when they woke people up and asked them what they were dreaming about, the ones who had the best recall were the ones who had the most theta waves in their frontal lobes.

26:22Josh Clark:Right, which are slow-moving waves, right?

26:24Chuck Bryant:Yes. And when you look at an EEG machine, if you looked at those dreamers' brain waves, it looked like the brain waves of somebody who was sitting there forming and recalling memories.

26:37Josh Clark:Right.

26:37Chuck Bryant:So these people said that's what they're doing. That's what all of us are doing. While we're dreaming, we're forming memories. We're taking emotions that we've experienced through the day and we're creating memories out of them so we can file them away. So we're processing our emotions in our dreams. That's the point of dreams. That's the current understanding.

26:57Josh Clark:Yeah, and then, I mean, other parts of the brain that have been active all sort of deal with emotion, whether it's the – amygdala in the hippocampus or the lingual gyrus, which I think we just talked about that in another episode.

27:10Chuck Bryant:I don't recall.

27:11Josh Clark:I can't remember. But they're all areas of the brain that relate to emotion and memory.

27:16Chuck Bryant:Right.

27:17Josh Clark:And some with visual activity. And, you know, that kind of makes sense. I like that theory.

27:22Chuck Bryant:Yeah. And then under that current theory, so that's like the explanation for regular dreams. And you can't just have a theory for dreams without including nightmares or else your theory's broken, right? Right. So the affect regulation theory considers nightmares. Basically, it's an emotion that's being put into the process of creating a memory, a false memory, right? A dream memory, I guess you'd put it. But it's a real emotion, right? And it's so big, it breaks the process. And all of a sudden, this process of creating a fake memory, a fake experience, goes haywire. and all of a sudden you're enduring some terrible, horrifying experience because the emotion that was being processed was too big and got out of control and now you have a nightmare.

28:10Chuck Bryant:TS for you.

28:12Josh Clark:Yeah. I think we did one of night terrors, right? We did, for sure. Right.

28:17Chuck Bryant:And sleep paralysis.

28:20Josh Clark:We've covered it all, I think.

28:21Chuck Bryant:I guess we really haven't done a dreams one.

28:24Josh Clark:All right, so let's take another break. We're going to come back and finally talk about fever dreams.

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31:40Chuck Bryant:You robbed me of a Saturday Night Fever reference. I just want to go on record as saying.

31:45Josh Clark:That I was wrong.

31:47Chuck Bryant:So Chuck, here's where everything just kind of goes totally off the rails. We've talked about fevers. We've talked about nightmares. The problem is really understanding both doesn't necessarily amount to understanding them together.

32:05Josh Clark:Right.

32:06Chuck Bryant:So knowing what fevers are, knowing what dreams are, doesn't mean you know what fever dreams are. But you can make stuff up if you want.

32:14Josh Clark:Yeah, and boy, I don't even think we even said if you've never had a fever dream, you might even know what we're talking about.

32:20Chuck Bryant:Oh, yeah. I feel kind of dumb at this point in the podcast, but a fever dream is basically a nightmare on steroids. Yeah.

32:29Josh Clark:It's just so vivid and so real and scary.

32:32Chuck Bryant:Right.

32:34Josh Clark:That happens, you know, when you are sick with a fever.

32:37Chuck Bryant:Yes. Obviously. So they're fever dreams, right? So they are a thing.

32:41Josh Clark:Yeah.

32:42Chuck Bryant:But the scientific literature on them is super thin, basically non-existent.

32:47Josh Clark:Kids seem to get them, if not more, at least they stand out more to children. Right. And so anecdotally, people seem to recall having fever dreams more when they were kids. Right. Whether or not that's true or just a memory is, or, you know, what do you call it, like a memory bias or whatever?

33:03Chuck Bryant:Yeah. That's, no one really knows. Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, we don't really know. Because I don't remember the last time I had a fever, and if I did, whether or not I had a fever dream. I don't think I've ever had a fever dream.

33:19Josh Clark:I did when I was a kid.

33:21Chuck Bryant:I don't remember having fever dreams.

33:22Josh Clark:Yeah, I remember being sick as a kid and having nightmares when I was sick.

33:27Chuck Bryant:So they're noticeably worse than your average nightmare?

33:30Josh Clark:Yes.

33:31Chuck Bryant:Really? Mm-hmm. So would you keep waking up from them?

33:36Josh Clark:That I don't remember.

33:37Chuck Bryant:See, that's a big question to me. Well, let's talk about the anecdotal theory of what is behind fever dreams, right?

33:45Josh Clark:Okay.

33:45Chuck Bryant:So when your body's undergoing a fever, we said that your body's not functioning at its top performance. No. And that includes the brain. The brain itself is an extremely special organ, if you didn't know already. It's like, I think, 2 % of the body's mass.

34:03Josh Clark:Yeah.

34:04Chuck Bryant:But it requires 20 % of the body's energy.

34:07Josh Clark:Yeah, and the neurons compared to regular old dumb cells, they burn or they need about between 300 and 2 ,500 times more energy than a regular old dumb cell in your body.

34:22Chuck Bryant:Right. And so when all these chemical processes, when all of this energy is being exploited to power cells, it produces the byproduct of heat. So the brain is super sensitive to overheating, right? Already, just under normal circumstances. Yeah, and it's generally taken care of by your body.

34:41Josh Clark:Like it's cooled down and regulated.

34:45Chuck Bryant:Right. So if you have a fever and your brain is not operating at optimal conditions, but you're asleep, so it's trying to go through its normal processes, if you have a nightmare, it's entirely possible that that nightmare is going to be far, far worse because the normal processes have broken down. Or it's even further possible, apparently the amygdala is frequently implicated with nightmares because it has to do with being terrified or angry or fearful. The amygdala might be functioning at an abnormal level and is just basically going haywire while you have a fever.

35:30Josh Clark:Yeah, and then the fact that most dreams occur during REM sleep, and I think that's when your body is warmest during sleep anyway, right?

35:39Chuck Bryant:That's when, see, this is where it all gets kind of hinky. During REM sleep, your hypothalamus says, I'm done, I'm not working right now. So it stops regulating temperature, which is usually why your body temperature is lowest right before you wake up.

35:52Josh Clark:Oh, I thought it was highest right before you wake up.

35:54Chuck Bryant:No, it's highest in the afternoon while you're awake. It's lowest right before you wake up. I feel like I always wake up hot. I mean, you may be sleeping with too many blankets. Your room might be a little too warm.

36:06Josh Clark:I use no blankets. Huh. Or maybe it's my stupid schedule of my AC. I mean, it could be. I might have cut off a couple hours before or something. Right. It could be, right? And it fires up after I get up.

36:19Chuck Bryant:Because supposedly when you are sleeping and you're in REM sleep, your hypothalamus is not regulating temperature during that period. So if you are already hot, and remember high body temperature is associated with wakefulness, then maybe you are waking up more frequently than you normally would. And when you wake up in the middle of a dream, you're more prone to remember it. If you wake up in the middle of a nightmare, it's going to seem even worse than one that you had and woke up normally from.

36:50Josh Clark:Yeah, I mean, I had a series of not nightmares last night, but just sort of anxiety dreams. and I don't have any anxiety about anything right now. I think it was just after reading all this stuff. Oh, yeah? I'm just suggestible.

37:04Chuck Bryant:You had anxiety dreams? Yeah. Huh.

37:07Josh Clark:But not about like...

37:08Chuck Bryant:Nothing specific?

37:09Josh Clark:No, like there's, you know, usually if I have anxiety dreams, I'm just like because something's going on in my life, I'm anxious.

37:14Chuck Bryant:Sure, yeah. But I'm... It was just the research, huh?

37:17Josh Clark:I think so. Man, you were dedicated. But there are also celebrity dreams because, you know, I've talked about those before.

37:23Chuck Bryant:No?

37:24Josh Clark:Yeah, yeah. that I have just celebrity dreams all the time. But they're just very normal. And I'm just like friends with celebrity people.

37:32Chuck Bryant:But were they anxiety ridden last night?

37:35Josh Clark:Yes. Like I was hanging out with the band Luna.

37:37Chuck Bryant:Okay.

37:38Josh Clark:Dean Wareham of Luna.

37:39Chuck Bryant:All right.

37:39Josh Clark:And there was, but there was, I can't remember exactly what was going on, but you know, there was anxiety involved. Like I was trying to get somewhere and couldn't get there. Like the typical stupid dream stuff.

37:49Chuck Bryant:You know? Yeah.

37:50Josh Clark:But Dean was in there somehow. Yeah. Have you talked to him today? I don't know him, but I think I know why they were in there. That's all I'll say.

38:00Chuck Bryant:Oh, okay.

38:02Josh Clark:Wink, wink. I guess so. Here's another thing that was in our own article I thought was interesting, just a little tidbit, was that some recreational drugs like meth and ecstasy can raise brain temperatures. That is one of the reasons they think that it kills so many brain cells when you do those drugs.

38:21Chuck Bryant:Yeah, supposedly you're not supposed to take ecstasy in warm climates.

38:25Josh Clark:Yeah, I never have heard that. Yeah, just Norway.

38:30Chuck Bryant:Well, there you have it. Only it's fall barred. What else? Is there anything else in here? No, man, I can't believe we stretched this one out as far as we did. Alrighty. We never have to talk about fever dreams again, Chuck. Good. If you want to know more about fever dreams, well, you might as well start at howstuffworks.com. There's nothing wrong with that. Um, and, uh, you can also just go around and look at how sparse the research is on the internet for yourself. And if you are a researcher and you know more stuff about fever dreams that you can point us to, let us know.

39:05Josh Clark:Yeah.

39:05Chuck Bryant:Um, in the meantime, I think I said search bar somewhere in there, which means it's time for listener mail.

39:13Josh Clark:Uh, you know what? I think another reason the anxiety dreams is because I'm barreling through the season of Fargo. Uh-huh. And. The third?

39:21Chuck Bryant:season.

39:22Josh Clark:Yeah, and the two episodes I watched last night, which I believe were if there were ten, I think it was eight and nine, were both just like ratcheted up with tension.

39:33Chuck Bryant:I'm sure that's what it was.

39:35Josh Clark:And I think that probably had something to do with it.

39:37Chuck Bryant:That happens to me sometimes. I'll be watching something and I won't realize how on top of me it's gotten and then all of a sudden it goes to an ad and I'm really uptight about this scratch and dent washing machine sale that's going on somewhere and I don't understand why. and I'm like, oh, wow, that TV show really got to me.

39:53Josh Clark:Yeah, I think Fargo had something to do with it.

39:55Chuck Bryant:I think you may have nailed it.

39:57Josh Clark:All right, I'm going to call this one Garden Variety Fan Mail, which we don't read a lot of these, so I'm going to.

40:04Chuck Bryant:Dig in.

40:05Josh Clark:Hey, guys, that's all this is, Fan Mail. You guys are doing a great job. Always have. It's clear that with every episode, you take great pains to provide the most accurate information you can in the most thoughtful way possible.

40:17Chuck Bryant:How ironic that you would read this on the Fever Dreams episode.

40:20Josh Clark:This has never been more evident to me than in the episodes you did on puberty. I know it's been a little while since these came out, but I just listened to them and it was touching to see how frequently you tried to reassure young listeners what they're experiencing is normal and that there was nothing wrong about what was happening. To hear two grown men do their best to talk to young boys and girls about such sensitive material was a pleasure. Yes, at times I could practically feel you nervously twitching while trying to discuss menstruation in an informative yet reassuring way, but it was absolutely charming.

40:52Josh Clark:Just reaffirm what we've always known, you two are just a pair of great dudes.

40:55Chuck Bryant:Aw, that's nice. Yeah, I like this guy.

40:57Josh Clark:I've only been listening for a few years, but I'm a lifetime fan now. If you're keeping count, I'd like to put in a vote for DC for live shows. Josh, E-D-G-E, E, sorry. E-D-G-E is edge. And then add two L's. Edgel? Edgel, sure, yeah. Josh, Edgel or Edgel? I like Edgel. Or Edgel? Edgel. Or Edgel?

41:25Chuck Bryant:I think Edgel. Edgel sounds like a kid next door.

41:28Josh Clark:Josh Edgel. It's Josh. And Josh, you know what? We usually come to D.C. once a year. I don't think we're coming this year, though.

41:36Chuck Bryant:No, we probably will be there early-ish 2018.

41:39Josh Clark:Yeah, D.C. is always great to us, so we'll definitely be back soon-ish.

41:43Chuck Bryant:Yeah. And you can always fly somewhere in the continental United States or Canada.

41:48Josh Clark:Josh. Take that Asala Express up to Brooklyn. Exactly. That's a pleasure train.

41:53Chuck Bryant:There you go. There's rectal thermometers everywhere. And if you want to get in touch with us, you can send us both and Jerry an email to stuffpodcast at iheartradio.com.

42:07Josh Clark:Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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