In short
Smiling—how it works physically (facial muscles and Facial Action Coding System), what different smiles mean (e.g., Duchenne, fake vs genuine, submission/reward/affiliation/dominance), how early development and culture affect smiling, and whether smiling increases happiness.
Guest backgrounds
No episode guests. Hosts are Josh, Chuck, and Jerry (Stuff You Should Know).
Key claims
- Smiles rely on facial muscles; AU12 (zygomaticus major) is central, and AU6 (eye involvement) marks the Duchenne smile.
- “Fake smile vs real smile” is often judged by eye involvement, but voluntary control can sometimes mimic parts.
- Smiling can signal submission (seen in primates) and social friendliness in humans.
- Infants smile early; caretakers can trigger “timed” smiles; a 2022 study linked maternal carrot vs kale intake to infant smiling vs grimacing.
- Smiling’s meaning is broadly universal but nuanced by culture (e.g., East Asian emphasis on eyes; different intelligence associations).
- Evidence that smiling causes happiness is mixed; some studies suggest induced smiles shift judgments, while others rely on subjective self-report.
Notable examples
- Duchenne’s electrical stimulation photographs.
- Kraut & Johnston (1979) bowling study: more smiles during casual interaction than after a strike.
- 2015 cross-cultural photo study: smile linked to intelligence in some countries, lower intelligence in others.
- DBT “half-smile” intervention; service workers’ “surface acting” linked to heavier drinking.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOThe Inspiration Behind Smiling
0:57 to 1:24
The hosts discuss their personal connections to the topic of smiling.
“We're saying yes to more plans and finally getting outside, running, walking, just moving again.”
The Inspiration Behind Smiling
1:50 to 2:28
The hosts discuss their personal connections to the topic of smiling.
“And when I grin, my teeth come together like a bear trap.”
Muscles Involved in Smiling
2:28 to 4:00
Exploration of the muscles used when smiling and how they function.
“So we are going to be there from October 2nd to 7th.”
Smiling vs. Frowning
4:00 to 4:36
Discussion on the common belief of muscle usage in smiling and frowning.
“But we should probably start out by letting everyone know that you use muscles when you smile.”
Action Units of Smiling
4:36 to 6:20
Introduction to facial action coding and the specific action units involved in smiling.
“No, you can make a kick drum beat when you flex those babies.”
The Duchenne Smile
6:20 to 8:04
Understanding the Duchenne smile and its significance in emotional expression.
“or like I guess the message that they're sending is don't use your muscles.”
Evolution of Smiling
8:04 to 12:16
How smiling relates to human evolution and comparisons with primates.
“So, like I said, they made various codes for these muscle movements and assigned names to them.”
Smiling as a Social Signal
12:16 to 14:01
Exploration of how smiling functions as a signal of submission and social connection.
“And I like to think that it can't be, that there's still some smile out there that's so genuine that it can't voluntarily be reproduced fully.”
Chimpanzee Smiling and Human Submission
14:01 to 15:45
Learn how chimpanzee behavior relates to human smiles and social interactions.
“Like when I see a chimpanzee bare their teeth like that.”
The Psychology of Baby Smiling
15:46 to 16:48
Discover when and why babies start to smile and their social implications.
“But those are sort of just random smiles, like they may have farted or something and are smiling not because it's funny.”
Show all 29 chapters
Influence of Maternal Diet on Baby Smiles
16:49 to 18:06
Explore a study linking maternal carrot or kale consumption to fetal smiles.
“because they've been found to time their smiles to maximize smiling from their caretaker.”
Smiles in Congenitally Blind Infants
18:07 to 19:16
Learn about studies examining smiles in blind infants and cultural implications.
“I wonder, though, if her parents were like, we love Charlie's Angels that much.”
Cultural Differences in Smiling
19:17 to 20:41
Understand how different cultures perceive and use smiling in communication.
“And it had the same they had the same spontaneous expressions as sighted counterparts sort of across the board.”
Universal Expressions and Their Nuances
20:42 to 24:43
Learn about universal facial expressions and cultural interpretations of smiles.
“Jacqueline Smith is 80 years old Oh wow, how's she doing?”
Universal Expressions and Their Nuances
26:01 to 26:51
Learn about universal facial expressions and cultural interpretations of smiles.
“All cat parents understand the feeling of being ignored by your cat and often asking yourself, does my cat even love me?”
Historical Perspectives on Smiling
27:27 to 28:02
Dive into the history of smiling, including insights from a relevant article.
“Like if you're looking for a vintage band tee.”
The History of Smiling in Portraits
28:37 to 29:47
Explore the historical acceptance of smiles in Western culture.
“Shout out to Colin Jones, who wrote a really good article on Aeon.”
Etiquette and the Seriousness of Smiles
29:47 to 31:07
Discuss the etiquette around smiling and the cultural implications.
“And I saw also that there was this, um, this general idea that if you were going to laugh, okay, we'd rather you don't.”
Photography and the Evolution of Smiling
31:07 to 31:56
Analyze the transition of smiling from portraits to photography.
“But people started doing that eventually.”
The Influence of Advertising on Smiling
31:56 to 32:50
Investigate how advertising in the 1930s changed perceptions of smiling.
“who was meant to be drunk or something like that that was the only way you would show it and in the United States at least it wasn't until the 1930s when people started actually smiling for photographs.”
Types of Smiles: Understanding Expressions
32:50 to 34:51
Learn about various types of smiles and their meanings.
“Yeah, there's, I have one picture of my parents, I think right before I was born and they're smiling and it's like a portrait.”
Analyzing Smiles: Duchenne vs. Fake
34:51 to 39:47
Distinguish between genuine smiles and those that are faked.
“Bring a caliper with you so you can take accurate measurements of the width of the eye cover fold.”
The Coordination Smile: A Case Study
40:20 to 42:00
Discuss the coordination smile using a film reference as an example.
“Like if you're looking for a vintage band tee.”
The Nature of Smiles in Cinema
42:00 to 43:13
Discussion on the portrayal of smiles in movies and their impact.
“So like he's coordinating, he's showing cooperation, but it's still kind of phony.”
Exploring the Uncanny Smile
43:13 to 44:18
Analysis of the uncanny smile in horror films and its unsettling nature.
“So you're talking about, they made a whole movie franchise around that.”
Do Smiles Influence Happiness?
44:18 to 46:40
Examination of the relationship between smiling and feelings of happiness.
“I mean, I think what's important, there doesn't need to be science as long as everyone agrees that it's scary for movies.”
Research on Smiling and Happiness
46:40 to 48:23
Discussion of various studies investigating if smiling can induce happiness.
“That's what they study is just like if you can, if the facial feedback that you're getting showing that you're smiling, that it can happen in the reverse rather than smiling because you're happy.”
The Impact of Smiling in Service Jobs
48:23 to 50:42
Insights into how mandatory smiling in service roles can affect mental health.
“and it just becomes so subjective and self-reporting that it's the jury's still out, I think.”
Listener Mail and Historical Corrections
50:42 to 54:09
Discussion of listener feedback and corrections regarding history topics.
“New and improved smiling happiness episode.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Introducing the all-new Mazda CX-5. Featuring more connection. Hey, Google, where's the nearest Pilates class? Safety that has your back. More discovery on the scenic routes. More passion in the details. And more control in changing weather. The all-new Mazda CX-5. More to move every side of you. See it in five films at mazdausa.com slash fivesides. Google is a trademark of Google LLC. Sequences shortened and simulated. With no fees or minimums on checking accounts, it's no wonder the Capital One bank guy is so passionate about banking with Capital One.
0:41If he were here, he wouldn't just tell you about no fees or minimums. He'd also talk about how most Capital One cafes are open seven days a week to assist with your banking needs. Yep, even on weekends. It's pretty much all he talks about, in a good way. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com slash bank. Capital One N-A member FDIC.
0:59Chuck Bryant:The springtime thaw is finally here. Flowers are blooming. Days are longer. We're saying yes to more plans and finally getting outside, running, walking, just moving again. It's the perfect time to upgrade your everyday go-tos with Bombas. Take Bomba's sport socks. They're super comfortable and designed with sport-specific tech for running, cycling, yoga, hiking, you name it. I use them to run in, and I can tell you they work beautifully. So head over to Bombas.com and use code S-Y-S-K for 20 % off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com, code S-Y-S-K at checkout. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
1:44Chuck Bryant:Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck. And Jerry's here, too. This is Stuff You Should Know. What in the world is that? I'm smiling from ear to ear. I'm grinning. And when I grin, my teeth come together like a bear trap. Well, if you're smiling, I bet it's because we are headed out to sea, everybody. On a five-nights, adults-only voyage with Virgin Voyages. This is October 2nd through 7th from New York City to Bermuda. We will be doing our live show and we will be joined by our colleagues and our old pals. Stuff they don't want you to know and stuff mom never told you. That's right.
2:28Chuck Bryant:So we are going to be there from October 2nd to 7th. We're going to be on that boat to Bermuda from New York and back. And you can get more information where, Chuck? At virginvoyages.com slash stuff. Come on, hang out with us on a boat. Very nice. Yeah. Yeah. I think we should specify you shouldn't expect to be able to get with us because, you know, we're happily married. Yeah, that's right. And what happens at sea doesn't just stay at sea that travels back home and you get divorced. That's right. Yeah. And you have to go to the doctor sometimes, too. Yeah. You don't want that. So we're talking today about smiling.
3:10Chuck Bryant:I think it's appropriate that I said I'm happily married because Yumi actually requested this so long ago that I went to her last week and was like, do you remember what prompted you to request smiling a long time ago? And she's like, I don't remember requesting smiling. So it'll forever be a mystery. But I'm glad that we're doing this one because we've done like all sorts of other stuff, laughing, disgust, the scream, forgiveness. Like there's just this whole like aspect of human personality suite that is just kind of slowly assembling into one great person, you know? That's right. And we did an episode in the early days, I think when we were but three years old, we were podcast toddlers.
3:55Chuck Bryant:Yeah. On whether or not smiling makes you happy. So we're going to recover a bit of that toward the end. A little. But we should probably start out by letting everyone know that you use muscles when you smile. It is all muscle movement. And if you want to compare a smile to like other dumb, boring muscles, the reason you can smile and make like weird kind of faces is because you have a lot of fast twitch myosin fibers in your face. Yeah. And that's why you can't make a face with your bicep. I kind of can. It looks like a messed up face, but it's still, somebody would be like, I see the face in there.
4:35Chuck Bryant:It looks a little like Mr. Bill. No, you can make a kick drum beat when you flex those babies. That's with my other one. So like I make Mr. Bill's mouth open and closed to the kick drum beat from my other bicep. But how do we compare to our primate friends? Oh, well, actually, it turns out, Chuck, I thought this was quite interesting that our primates are actually, our primate friends, are actually more expressive facially because they don't speak. That's right. That's the idea behind the whole thing. We do know that primates typically are more expressive through their faces than humans are. And the idea behind it or the explanation for it is that humans require more slow twitch muscles, the bigger muscles, to talk, to move our faces and our mouths to talk, which primates don't have to do.
5:25Chuck Bryant:So we essentially, basically our fast twitch muscles evolved into more slow twitch muscles, but we're still pretty expressive. So don't be too sad. Yeah, for sure. If you've ever, you know, heard people say it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. First of all, lightly slap that person in the face with a feather. Next, move along and say, you know what? Prove it. because I looked and I couldn't, you know, first of all, it's a very nuanced thing. Like there are a lot of different smiles and a lot of different frowns. Yeah, that's a big point. And each of those different ones, like, you know, takes different muscles to make those.
6:05So for someone just to sort of flatly say, you know, it takes 22 muscles to smile and 100 to frown. Right. That's I can't couldn't find anything that could verify that is true. or like I guess the message that they're sending is don't use your muscles. It's better to not use your muscles. Right.
6:26Chuck Bryant:Why bother? Just smile. Yeah, it's funny. I looked all over too and all I could find were dentists' websites, which were pretty confident about that. That's right. Well, four out of five were. But you said that your – that was great. You said that your smiles all include muscles and not just yours, Chuck, but all people's. That's right. And it includes a very particular muscle, I think one on each side, the zygomaticus major. These actually pull the sides of your mouth up. So I guess the joker, when his face was slashed, it somehow made his zygomaticus major constantly contracted. That's right.
7:14Chuck Bryant:I just want to say, I'm not sure what's wrong with me right now. I realize that I'm stammering, having a lot of trouble. Hopefully my brain will reset while you're talking next now. I haven't noticed anything. I think you're doing great. So there are actual people who, and boy, they've done a lot of research on smiling and stuff as we go. Like, you'll probably be astounded at how much time and money people have put into this kind of thing. But they have done research and actually sort of like coded the face and the system of muscles. so they know what each group does, the facial action coding system, what it's called, the facts, just the facts.
7:53I'm going with faces.
7:56Chuck Bryant:Yeah, they couldn't come up with any. I think it's implied. Okay. I'm going to go with just the faces then. Okay. So, like I said, they made various codes for these muscle movements and assigned names to them. And they know that all smiles involve action unit 12, which is both of those zygomaticus major muscles contracting. And, you know, you said they raise them up or they also raise them out because you'll see when you smile, your smile, your mouth gets wider as well. And the whole world smiles with you. That's right. But if you're really happy and you're not, and we'll talk about the different kinds of smiles, like including fake smiles, but if you're really genuinely happy with something and smiling from joy or, you know, being alive.
8:42That means your eyes are involved and that is Action Unit 6. Yes.
8:48Chuck Bryant:So a couple of things here. Action Unit 12, I think is the pinnacle of band names that we've ever covered. It's pretty darn good. Not only is it a great name, if you dig into what it means, you're talking about smiling. It's the name for smiling. So that's pretty awesome. But it also has a built-in abbreviation that's great, too, AU12. Maybe even AU12. Oh, yeah. So it's looked good on a logo or whatever. I really genuinely think that is the best band name we've ever stumbled upon. So did that just unseed Frozen Poop Knife? I think so. They could go on tour together. Does that mean we retire this bit?
9:30I don't know, Chuck. It's possible. Well, here's the deal. I think if we don't retire it, we will just have to mention almost every time from now on, like, but it's no AU12. Okay. Okay.
9:43Chuck Bryant:But yes, all apologies to Frozen Poop Knife. We will never forget you, and we'll bring you up still. Yeah, they just kicked over their kick drum. So, no, that was my bicep. So, if you take Action Unit 12 and Action Unit 6 together, that's what's known as the Duchenne smile. and we definitely talked about um guillaume duchene in our can smiling make you happy episode right yeah and in fact i think we called him duchene because the uh the translator spelled it wacky how oh i mean different things uh kane k-a-i-n-e um shane s-h-a-n-e that's two different names. Yeah, it's, you know, go AI translator, I guess.
10:32Chuck Bryant:Yeah, but we're going to go with Guillaume Duchesne this time, who is a French neurologist. He also was dabbling with electricity and photography. I saw that he basically existed at this neat crossroad of three emergent sciences that were coming out at the same time. This guy put them all to use. And he stimulated people's facial muscles with electricity. There's an extensive set of photographs of him doing this to this poor guy. And this guy is making all these weird facial expressions and Duchenne is coding all of them. But it's kind of hysterical to think that like this guy's not purposely making these.
11:15Chuck Bryant:He's being zapped with electricity and that's what's making them because the correct muscle combination is being zapped right then by Duchenne. Yeah, that's pretty funny stuff. So he claimed, and this was sort of a, and I think people thought this was true for a while, was, you know, this notion that you can tell a fake smile by the eyes, and that's sort of the dead giveaway. And he may have not reinforced it, but he may have sort of planted that seed when he said that the orbicularis oculi, which is action unit six that we talked about, the eyes, that would only contract due to the sweet emotions of the soul, which is a very nice thing to say, but it turns out that's probably not true.
11:57Chuck Bryant:No, people can, including Tyra Banks, can make yourself, or make themselves, I'm sorry, smile with their eyes. But there does seem to be some disagreement on whether that can ever fully be reproduced voluntarily. And I like to think that it can't be, that there's still some smile out there that's so genuine that it can't voluntarily be reproduced fully. Yeah, I think what the deal is, is there are some people who are probably so good at the fake smile that you just don't realize it. Yeah, beware of those people. But both of those things can be true. I think what you said is definitely true. Thanks, man.
12:38Chuck Bryant:I want to say one other thing about AU6, Action Unit 6. if you go and look at the faces coatings or facts it's just like strips of like the mouth or the eyes or something like that and for action unit 6 it is a strip of my eyes it is very clearly somebody took my photo and just cut out the eyes and is just showing the eyes it looks exactly like my eyes you should go look send me a screenshot I'm not going to look it up okay I will eventually That's the agreement we came to. Okay. I think that's fair enough. To guys who do research for a living, you can't make the other one look anything up. No.
13:20Chuck Bryant:We just send screenshots. So if we're talking about evolution, it's a pretty human thing to just be alive in the world and smile because you're feeling good and having a good day. if you look at some something in the like a somebody from the primate kingdom and you see that teeth like you've man i've seen those chimpanzees bear those teeth and everyone's like oh they're so happy and it that's uh actually not what they're trying to say to you and it doesn't mean they're trying to kill you right then either um but it's a sign of submission apparently um i don't know i always i didn't ever took it as they they always look stressed out to me Like when I see a chimpanzee bare their teeth like that.
14:04Chuck Bryant:Yeah, I've seen them. It depends on, I think it depends on the rest of the face because I can bring to mind images of chimps doing that. The one I bring to mind more is Clyde from Every Which Way But Loose doing that, the orangutan. Yeah, man. He definitely did that and he didn't seem stressed out, but they definitely played it like he was laughing or something like that. And he surely wasn't. Yeah, for sure. One of the things about that, though, Chuck, is smiling through submission. that is that still survived into humans for sure like that is something that we do um not just to say like you're an alpha i'm a beta um but also to say like hey uh i just want to get along no no stress over here yeah yeah um or you know to to um to basically not be tense or if an awkward pause comes both people might kind of smile or something like that um all of that is essentially the same thing as a chimp smiling to signal submission.
15:00Yeah, for sure. There was a paper in 1979, a pretty classic smiling paper, where these psychologists, Robert Kraut and Robert Johnston, they were notating how people reacted when they went bowling together and found they were more likely to smile when just like hanging out and talking than after getting a strike, which like that totally tracks because like when you get a strike, you're supposed to act cool like you meant to do that. You're not supposed to turn around and go, ooh.
15:27Chuck Bryant:Right. For sure. I read a little more about that study. One participant, Jesus, never smiled. And another participant, an Amish man named Ishmael, smiled almost constantly. Well, I think what we might want to talk about a little bit, and I know we've covered this before, was baby smiling. Because it's about one of the cutest darn things in the world, is when you see a little baby smile at you. That does happen very early. Very newborn infants can smile. But those are sort of just random smiles, like they may have farted or something and are smiling not because it's funny. They'll learn that a little bit later and not because they lit it on fire.
16:08They'll learn that probably in their tween years. That's dangerous. Is it really?
16:13Chuck Bryant:I've always heard. Why not? You never lit a fart? I have, but I just escaped by the skin of my teeth. I got you. it's usually just sort of a random occurrence when a very newborn baby smiles about four to six weeks they start smiling when they wake up and they see you or hear you as we'll see but it's still sort of indiscriminate it seems like the social smiling that starts at about six to twelve weeks when they're like hey I see mom or dad or whoever I like to see or I hear their voice. And that makes me happy. Exactly. But apparently they're also, um, master manipulators because they've been found to time their smiles to maximize smiling from their caretaker.
16:57Chuck Bryant:So like they'll give you a smile so that you'll smile at them for 30 seconds and they'll flash you another one. And there you go. You're smiling again. And they learned to do that like really early. Yeah. I wonder if twins are ever like, Hey, watch this. Kind of, I'm sure. Did you see that link I sent you about the study about babies smiling in utero? Yeah. If you want your paper to make the national news, just make it on baby smiles. But this paper from 2022 in the Journal of Psychological Science, they gave pregnant women carrot pills or kale pills. and when the women ate carrot pills, the babies smiled like 15, 20 minutes later as it was digested and reached them.
17:43Chuck Bryant:When they ate kale, the babies grimaced. I wonder what they did when they gave them the Reese's peanut butter cup. They just started doing 360s. Yeah, they started breakdancing. But one other thing about this study, Chuck, one of the co-authors was named Jacqueline Blissett. Ah, that's funny. I mean, it's true, though. I think it's great. No, I know, but it's still funny, right? Okay. Well, yeah. I wonder, though, if her parents were like, we love Charlie's Angels that much. I don't get the Charlie's Angels ref. Oh, Jacqueline Bissette was the, she was the best Charlie's Angel, if you ask me, one of the original three.
18:24She wasn't in Charlie's Angels.
18:26Chuck Bryant:Jacqueline Bissette? I don't know who you're thinking of, buddy. All right. Now we do need to look something up. You go ahead. Okay, I'll go ahead. All right, so I mentioned hearing, and I planted a little seed there that a little infant baby hearing something could make them smile. And they know this stuff because, you know, they've done studies on whether smiles are innate or imitative. And so if you're going to do a study like this, you might want to study babies who are congenitally blind, and they have found that it really doesn't make a difference. blind infants start to smile in response to that voice, just like sighted babies do.
19:07And they did another study of congenitally blind athletes at the Paralympic Games. And this one had was from 23 different cultures, because as we'll see, different cultures like smiles might mean different things. And it had the same they had the same spontaneous expressions as sighted counterparts sort of across the board.
19:25Chuck Bryant:Yeah, which is pretty awesome. They also found that the children who were studied, I don't remember what study this was in, but basically they observed children who were given reasons to basically mask disappointment with a smile. And apparently, and this is for real, like play schoolers or nursery schoolers, they had them make lists of toys they wanted. And then they gave them a toy that they hadn't asked for. and the kid would mask their disappointment with a little smile and they found that sighted and non-sighted kids basically made the same facial expressions in that situation too. Yeah, amazing.
20:05Did you look up Charlie's Angels?
20:07Chuck Bryant:Yeah, I did. I was hoping you would forget. Jacqueline Smith? Oh, yeah. You got Jacqueline right. Well, we might just take out the whole thing. Aw. You never know. All right. Well, I guess we'll see. We'll let the listener decide. I don't know if that's possible Well, not decide, but decide how they feel about it Okay But they won't know about it if we took it out Well, but they wouldn't even hear what I just said then either No, we should leave this part in and really confuse everybody Oh man, I brought up cultural differences Jacqueline Smith is 80 years old Oh wow, how's she doing? She's doing great Hey listen, I'm not one to comment on people's appearance Because I know that's untoward sure but Jacqueline Smith does not look like any other 80 year old that I've ever seen she is the best angel you you agree right uh yeah she was my favorite I think good actor I think I had a pretty big crush on her sure I mean for sure I think everybody had a crush on all of the Charlie's Angels to some extent yeah but I'm with you I think Jacqueline Smith was definitely the top angel yeah she was great in the deep too oh yeah that's a good movie I was trying to make a joke.
21:24Chuck Bryant:I thought that was Jacqueline Bessette who was in the deep. Oh, wait. She was in the deep. Yeah. Oh, boy. We're going to take that part out, too. Oh, God. Jerry's going to have fun with this one. She's going to be like, oh, I'm going to pass this one on to Ben. I've got stuff going on. Can't you hear people being like, get back to smiling? I know. All right. Back to smiling. I mentioned different cultures because, you know, there's the idea of like, what if I'm a different culture and I'd like smile at someone. And that actually means like, I hate what you just fed me or something like that. Yeah.
21:56So they've done a lot of studying over the years. Uh, there's, uh, in the sixties, there was a psychologist named Paul Ekman who did experiments where they just showed images of faces to different cultures and then like had them pick from a list on what emotion that was. And he was like, all right, here's what I came up with. There are six universal facial expressions only six anger disgust enjoyment fear sadness and surprise later he said contempt all right there is a seventh we'll add contempt but a lot of people pick that apart because he um it was multiple choice and they're like it's probably a better study and people have done it since if you just show them pictures and have them like write down what that is and not to pick from your list right and he also was over their shoulder pointing to
22:44Chuck Bryant:the correct answer whenever they were taking the test. But that's not to say that he was wrong. It does turn out that subsequent research, and a lot of it, has essentially found that, yeah, there's pretty much universal agreement on what facial expressions mean. There's a lot of disagreement, but for the most part, you're going to find the vast majority look at someone smiling and associate that with happiness. Yeah, I think there's some nuance in there, depending on where you are. Interestingly, they did find that people smile more in countries that have a lot of immigration as a whole, like countries that are like the United States that are formed from people from all over the world.
23:27Melting pot. Yeah, like Brazil is another one. And some researchers have put out, and it makes sense to me, that like, yeah, when you have a bunch of people living in a melting pot, people generally want to get along. So they're probably using a smile more than you might in a country where, like, most people are from there.
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23:45Chuck Bryant:Yeah, it's like a nonverbal way of saying, like, hey, friendly, I'm friendly too, great. Yeah, it totally makes sense, I think. Also, this one I was unsure about, countries with low population densities. They have more room to smile, I don't know, or they just have fewer other people to deal with. Those are my two interpretations. Yeah, I agree. But like you said, there are some nuance to the whole thing. in East Asia, specifically in Japan and China, they basically emphasize the eyes. Like that's where the smile lay in Action Unit 6. Me, essentially. And they don't even apparently use the curved line for a smile on their emoticons.
24:32Chuck Bryant:It's just the eyes as triangles, basically simulating Action Unit 6. Yeah, that's kind of fun. Another thing that smiling conveys, or at least I don't know if it conveys it, but people take it this way, is they find people not only happier, but more competent and attractive generally when they're smiling. Sure. Give me a smile, baby. Yeah, exactly. Oh, no, no, don't say that. In 2015, there was a study that showed photographs of people with different expressions to 44 different cultures around the world. And they found that like in China and Germany and Egypt, they associated a smile with intelligence.
25:07but in Japan, France, and Iran, I guess I'm on that sort of A sound, they thought it meant, or at least they correlated it with lower intelligence.
25:19Chuck Bryant:Like they think you look dippy if you have a big smile in those countries. I guess it depends on the person in the smile. Sure. Like Cletus the slack-jawed yokels, big toothy smile, like I could see that. Yeah. Yeah. What's interesting, too, is there's different different countries or cultures have agreed at different periods of time, too, as we'll see. Should we take a break? Let's take a break, because I think that was one of the best cliffhangers we've ever come up with. For sure. We'll be right back.
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26:35It also contains no corn, wheat, soy, or artificial flavors. So instead of feeling ignored, you're suddenly the center of their world. It's basically a fast pass to favorite human status. Next time you're wondering if your cat loves you, grab Shiba Puree or explore their entire range of textures and flavors at your local retailer. To learn more, check out Shiba.com.
26:54Chuck Bryant:Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes connected seamlessly with fast, reliable internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, and mobile services. That's right. And Spectrum Business offers 100 % U.S.-based customer support 24-7 to help you stay up and running. And they offer tailored connectivity solutions with packages built for your business budget. Yeah. So it's no wonder millions of business owners rely on Spectrum Business to keep them connected. Visit spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas. On eBay, every find has a story. Like if you're looking for a vintage band tee.
27:35Not just a tee, the band tee from the last show your favorite band ever played. You wore it everywhere. Then your girlfriend started wearing it, which was cute, until she dumped you and took it with her, which was not so cute.
27:46Chuck Bryant:Yeah, well, anyway, now you're on eBay. And there it is. Same tee from the same tour. still living in your memory, rent-free forever. See? The things you love have a way of finding their way back to you. But eBay isn't just for getting whatever your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend stole back, right? No. It's also for that rare championship foul ball you caught, then heroically gave to the kid next to you. And where else are you going to find your first car, the one you wish you'd never sold, but now finally get the chance to take it back home. For good this time. So shop eBay for millions of finds, each with a story.
28:18eBay, things people love.
28:36Chuck Bryant:So Chuck, we're on to the history part. Shout out to Colin Jones, who wrote a really good article on Aeon. He was the author of the book Smile Revolution, colon, in 18th century Paris. I've never seen a colon be more useless than the one Colin Jones put into his book title. But regardless, this Aeon article was super helpful. Yeah. I mean, are you talking about like portrait painting? The whole darn thing, buddy. Like basically the progress of smile, the smile being acceptable in Western culture, it traces a pretty long heritage and it's had its ups and downs, essentially. Yeah, like I definitely I mean, it makes sense, but I never knew that like portraits being so serious, like painted portraits was because it's you can't make a realistic looking smile because smiling again is something ideally that's happening spontaneously.
29:35obviously and you can't hold that uh while you're sitting for a portrait so that's the reason why all those portraits for so many you know hundreds and thousands of years uh were just more serious looking yeah because you can't just be like hurry up i know it's no good um yeah that is pretty
29:54Chuck Bryant:interesting too i i guess we talked about something like that in the orthodontics episode because i think also there was just like you just didn't show your teeth like that was just etiquette Um, there was a manual for boys, um, an etiquette manual that said that decorum forbids you to allow your teeth to be uncovered since nature gave us lips to conceal them. And I saw also that there was this, um, this general idea that if you were going to laugh, okay, we'd rather you don't. But if you're going to laugh silently and laugh with your mouth closed. And there's a painting from 1624 by Franz Halls called The Laughing Cavalier that if you want to see what that looks like, it's that.
30:36Chuck Bryant:And it looks like essentially a smug half smile that's apparently laughing in the 17th century. Yeah. I mean, if you look at old yearbooks, you know, people didn't start smiling till later. You know, teeth were fairly janky for a while. And it's theorized that it's just a holdover from the portrait painting days. Right. Where if you sat for a portrait and then later in photography, it's just a more formal sort of thing. It's not a candid. And so you don't just sit there and flash a big smile. But people started doing that eventually. Who helped us with this one? Olivia did. Yeah, Olivia saw some research that said that early photography too, like long exposures, people couldn't hold a smile.
31:19But I kind of called bunk on that. I've seen that online, but by the 1850s and 60s, it was only a few seconds of exposure. Like the cameras were good enough for that. So I think it had more to do with the holdover. It just wasn't something that people did, like smiling like a dope in a painting or a picture was just untoward.
31:37Chuck Bryant:Yeah, like you said, smiling like a dope. Basically, in Europe, for hundreds and hundreds of years, smiles were associated with you being immature, you being drunk, you being insane. and like that's just that was the way you depicted people was showing them smiling in like a painting and the viewer would know what you were showing was maybe like a patient in an asylum or somebody who was meant to be drunk or something like that that was the only way you would show it and in the United States at least it wasn't until the 1930s when people started actually smiling for photographs. And it really took off after that because of advertising ads for cameras that basically said, hey, you should smile with a picture.
32:23Chuck Bryant:What's your problem? Just go ahead and smile. Don't you know it takes more muscles to frown than to smile? Yeah. Yeah. They're like, buy the new Kodak so you can capture your dour grandmother in all her majesty. Exactly. But there was that. Did you mention the yearbook study? uh no not a study just that in yearbooks like it took a while for that to catch on right yeah some study basically tracked it and then i guess like i said by the 30s it really started to take off and then by the 50s this is anecdotal but just from watching happy days yearbook photos essentially became big goofy grins because just imagine like ralph mouth or potsy having like a solemn look in their yearbook photo you can't do it yeah i mean i don't have a ton of pictures of my parents growing up, but I think I do have like the college portraits of their yearbooks and they're both smiling-ish in those.
33:18Chuck Bryant:Yeah, there's, I have one picture of my parents, I think right before I was born and they're smiling and it's like a portrait. They're smiling at each other. My dad looks goofy. Should we talk about types of smiles?
33:36um sure boy you really had me on a on an edge there so uh ekman the guy you know psychologist that i was talking about the study a lot about smiles he talked about identifying a real genuine enjoyment smile because of the eyes those duchenne markers and that's what we kind of said early on is that a lot of research has found that, like, the real genuine smiles is in the eyes, but you can still fake that. Right.
34:06Chuck Bryant:But he said that in a real smile, like, this is why I'm, like, I'm holding out hope that there is a smile that cannot be voluntarily replicated. Eckman said, in a true Duchenne smile, the eye cover fold between your eyebrow and the eyelid or the top of your eyelid, that actually goes downward a little bit. And then the ends of your eyebrows dip down with it a little bit. You can't do that on your own. You can't do that. Like, I'm having to pull my face right now to make myself do that. That's right. And so next time you're on a blind date, if you're trying to figure out if they are truly, truly enjoying and smiling, just stare as hard as you can at the eye cover fold and see what it reveals.
34:51Chuck Bryant:Bring a caliper with you so you can take accurate measurements of the width of the eye cover fold. That's right. Right. People have categorized smiles over the years because they, you know, some are just for joy. But a lot of smiles have purposes like you were talking about earlier. Like, hey, it's cool here. Like we just want to get out alive. Right. There is the reward smile, which is very eye engaged and offers the feedback to your conversation partner of like, like, hey, I'm liking what you're laying down here. Yeah. Hey, my eyes are up here. That's right. That's right. There's affiliative smiles that show friendliness.
35:30Chuck Bryant:These are the ones you'll flash a stranger at the grocery store, you know? Yeah, if you're from the South. I'm not going to sneak up behind you and club you with a giant bottle of wine. That's right. There's dominant smiles, too, which, man, essentially, like, the lip will be lifted a little bit. Usually it's asymmetrical. I think it's one of those ones where, like, you just know if you've been smiled at with a dominant smile because you just have a bad taste in your mouth all of a sudden. For sure. Ekman identified 18 smiles. We're going to go through all those. But I think we should talk about, did you want to?
36:07Chuck Bryant:No, that's okay. We should talk about a couple of them. One of my favorites is the miserable smile. Yeah. It is usually asymmetrical and layered on top. And it usually follows a negative expression. So it's trying to convey, like, you're not trying to hide that you're unhappy and you're just accepting what's happening. So I would act that out as the smile like, well, I guess this is happening now. Yes. I would chalk the current reigning champ of the miserable smile as far as Hollywood goes up to the actor. I don't know her name. Oh, boy. But she was in I Don't Feel at Home in This World anymore.
36:45Chuck Bryant:She was the star of that. Don't know that. She played Leonardo DiCaprio's wife in Don't Look Up. She's good at that. Okay. Have you not seen I Don't Feel at Home in This World anymore? No. Was that a movie or a TV show? It was a movie. It was an indie movie. Not Tobey Maguire. Frodo. I'm sorry, Frodo. He was in it with her. Elijah Wood. Oh, Melanie Linsky. She's the best. Okay, yes, her. Thank you for coming up with that. That movie is definitely worth seeing. It's a great indie movie. It's good. Oh, I'll check that out. I love both of them, especially like her. She's wonderful. She's married to Jason Ritter.
37:25No way. Yeah, great. One of the great couples. Okay, good. I mean, Hollywood couples. Sure. Because, you know, they're usually phonies. They seem pretty real.
37:35Chuck Bryant:Yeah, because they always have that miserable smile. That's right. What other smiles, Josh? What's your favorite? Well, miserable smile is my favorite, too. Oh, okay. But the embarrassment smile, I think, is kind of funny. Oh, yeah. Because it's just so involuntary. Yeah. Like if you imagine somebody actually doing this, it's hard to do. And it kind of makes you appreciate what actors do, like just how hard it is to be a good actor. Because you might be called upon to do an embarrassment smile where you're embarrassed and you smile. It's kind of usually like just barely tilted up. Your lips are pressed together and you're looking downward, maybe even to the side a little bit.
38:14Chuck Bryant:And it's just so quick and just so you just can't stop yourself. You just do an embarrassment smile and everybody's like, oh, it's OK. Except for that one guy who's got the dominant smile because you just showed that you're embarrassed. Yeah. And now he knows that you're a mark. Yeah. Yeah. That's how those embarrassment smile go. All right. Well, you know what? Let's take a break and I'm going to cover my favorite last favorite smile right after this. I know our timing is just all wonky on this and this because we're having fun. So we'll be right back with my favorite smile.
38:57All cat parents understand the feeling of being ignored by your cat. And often asking yourself, does my cat even love me? And there is only one solution to solve that. Sheba. Feed your cat Sheba and go from feeling ignored to truly adored in 12 days guaranteed or your money back. Sheba has a menu of products, appetizers, entrees, treats, and even a kitten's menu. So Sheba has a product for even the pickiest eater, like the Sheba puree, which is made with bone broth. It's a protein-rich, lickable treat with chef-inspired flavors. It has a smooth and creamy texture that cats love. Plus, it supports a strong bond between pet parents and their cats with a hand-fed cat treat.
39:31It also contains no corn, wheat, soy, or artificial flavors. So instead of feeling ignored, you're suddenly the center of their world. It's basically a fast pass to favorite human status. Next time you're wondering if your cat loves you, grab Shiba Purée or explore their entire range of textures and flavors at your local retailer. To learn more, check out Shiba.com.
39:50Chuck Bryant:Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes connected seamlessly with fast, reliable internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, and mobile services. That's right. And Spectrum Business offers 100 % U.S.-based customer support 24-7 to help you stay up and running. And they offer tailored connectivity solutions with packages built for your business budget. Yeah, so it's no wonder millions of business owners rely on Spectrum Business to keep them connected. Visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas. On eBay, every find has a story. Like if you're looking for a vintage band tee.
40:31Not just a tee, the band tee from the last show your favorite band ever played. You wore it everywhere. Then your girlfriend started wearing it, which was cute, until she dumped you and took it with her, which was not so cute.
40:42Chuck Bryant:Yeah, well, anyway, now you're on eBay. And there it is. Same tee from the same tour. Still living in your memory, rent-free forever. See? The things you love have a way of finding their way back to you. But eBay isn't just for getting whatever your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend stole back, right? No, it's also for that rare championship foul ball you caught, then heroically gave to the kid next to you. And where else are you going to find your first car? The one you wish you'd never sold. But now, finally, get the chance to take it back home. For good this time. So shop eBay for millions of finds, each with a story.
41:15eBay. Things people love.
41:32All right, everybody. I'm just going to call this the William H. Macy in his office in Fargo smile when Fran McDormand meets him for the first time. It's that smile. It's the coordination smile. and a coordination smile indicates cooperation and acknowledgement. Slightly asymmetrical and it's sort of slight, but Bill Macy in that scene with the, yeah, we'll just, we'll do a lot count and we'll just shoot those numbers right on over to you. So like he's coordinating, he's showing cooperation, but it's still kind of phony. Oh, yeah. Sort of a business smile almost.
42:09Chuck Bryant:He's great at that though too. Yeah. And it also has like, I'm just so pathetic, Like, you can't even question me. Like, just overlook me, kind of. Yeah. You know that movie's 90 minutes long? Man, we need to get back to that. Anything two hours are over means that the producers did not rein the director in. No, I agree. Movies are too bloated now. And if anyone ever makes it, like, if a director would make an argument that we really need that, I would just say Fargo and walk out of the room. Yeah, and that's all you need to say. But yeah, I've been watching some 90s and 80s movies, and they're definitely like 90 minutes.
42:47Chuck Bryant:It's all it takes. It's all it should take. I saw 52 Pickup recently. Oh, who was that? Roy Scheider and Anne Margaret. Yes, that's right. That's right. Good movie. It was all right. I love Roy Scheider. It was much more hardcore than it makes you think it's going to be in the first like 15 minutes. Because you thought it was about cards and just like throwing them on playing that game. Right. Just an hour and a half of that. Uh-huh. I've got one more smile, Chuck. All right, let's hear it. The uncanny smile. Oh, okay. So you're talking about, they made a whole movie franchise around that. Yeah, smile, right?
43:22Chuck Bryant:That's exactly what I'm talking about. It was also the ghost family and Insidious, the first one. Yeah. They all had that uncanny smile. Jack Nicholson might have been the progenitor of the whole thing in The Shining when he's got that smile where he's like looking. Here's Johnny. He's looking like over, he's looking his chin's down but his eyes are up and he's got that crazy smile on his face yeah it's very unsettling it is that's the uncanny smile and um it will haunt your dreams okay i didn't know if you had any science behind it i looked and i couldn't find anything the most i could find was that it was um contextually wrong right that it kind of set our brains on edge from that.
44:05Chuck Bryant:And then also, if you really, now that you kind of know about the facial coding system, if you look at it, the AU6 is definitely not in effect because the eyes are usually staring while there's this huge grin. And that is not a normal combination. Yeah. I mean, I think what's important, there doesn't need to be science as long as everyone agrees that it's scary for movies. Yeah. What else, buddy? Oh, I think we've reached the best part. Does smiling make us happy? Yes. Yeah. So, you know, like I said, we did a full episode on this, but that was three years in. And I don't think we were very good at that point.
44:42So hopefully this will be better, as proved by this episode today.
44:46Chuck Bryant:Well, this was a throwback, wasn't it? We should have gone for the second ad break right before we went to a listener mail. Yeah. So the idea that smiling makes us feel happier apparently traces itself back to Darwin. Yeah. And Darwin was big into smiling. He saw facial expressions in general as evidence of vestigial behavior that we had from like our primate ancestors, right? And there have been tons of studies to find out if that's true. And they've come back with like mixed results. Some of them are like kind of maybe, but others are like, I don't know about that. Yeah. Yeah, it's a tough thing to test because what they do is, like, they have different methodologies.
45:35One of the early ones, I think, was from 1988. And they said, you know, they put a pen in your mouth, like, sideways, which will, you know, make sort of a fake assimilation of a smile, I guess.
45:49Chuck Bryant:Well, that's if you have the pen sticking out of your mouth straight between your teeth. Right. No, really. No, no, no. I thought it was, I thought they would put it sideways so it would make your lips out. You're saying they just hold it in your teeth like a cigarette? Yes. In the middle of your mouth, that'll make you smile. And then if you put it like in between, like sideways, that makes you frown. Huh. Not me, buddy. You got a pen handy? I'll do it and I'll text it to you. No, no, I'll make you research it. Send me a screenshot. Well, either way, if you hold that pen between their teeth, they will then ask you questions Like, you know, like, are you happy?
46:26Are you not happy? Stuff like that. And like, look at this thing. Does this make you happy? And I guess that's supposed to indicate that, like, if your mouth is forced into a smile, that you'll be happier. That just it doesn't make sense to me.
46:38Chuck Bryant:Yeah, that's the study. That's what they study is just like if you can, if the facial feedback that you're getting showing that you're smiling, that it can happen in the reverse rather than smiling because you're happy. If you make yourself smile, can that make you happy? Right. And that one, that first 1988 study to keep people from knowing that they were being tested about smiling. They told them that they were testing out new methods to help disabled people write who didn't have arms. So they were trying to figure out ways to help them write so that people, that's what they thought they were doing.
47:16Chuck Bryant:And then they said, here, check out this cartoon. Is this funny or not? And I guess all of the cartoons were Ziggy, so everyone thought they were funny. But the people who were making the smiles thought they were funnier than everybody. All right. That got way more interesting. Once I knew what they how they lied. Yeah, they definitely lied for sure. Never trust a researcher. This one from 2024 has carries a little more weight for me because it's not just sticking a pen in someone's mouth. A psychologist named Sebastian Korb of University of Essex and did a thing where he ran a little electric current into their those fast twitch muscles, which forced like a smile to happen for just like a half a second.
47:59and then they assessed whether a, like a digital image of a face looked happy. So apparently when they induced those tiny little smiles, people were more likely to identify a neutral face as happy.
48:12Chuck Bryant:Yeah, and the big failing of all of these studies is that they go social psychology at the end. Like, are you happy? Do you feel happy? Is this comic funny? Is this neutral face happy? and it just becomes so subjective and self-reporting that it's the jury's still out, I think. Yeah. Am I a comedian? Am I making you laugh? What, am I a clown? Do I amuse you? I just watched that again the other night. What is that, Goodfellas? Yeah. I mean, it's still great. You know what's not great is The Aviator, because I mentioned that in the Howard Hughes episode. I just watched the Howard Hughes in Vegas bit, but I had recently seen the Scorsese documentary series.
48:53And I was like, you know, I should watch all of The Aviator. It's not one of his best.
48:57Chuck Bryant:No, I know it didn't get a lot of praise. Yeah. It was two and a half hours long, too, wasn't it? It was pretty long. It was not 90 minutes, I'll tell you. There is one more intervention about smiling make you happy. It's from Dialectical Behavior Therapy, DBT. Okay. And it employs the half smile. and it essentially tells you to make a little smile so that you know you're smiling, but not that you look like crazy to other people, right? So other people can't really tell. They might see that you might look slightly different and maybe a little more approachable than you normally would with a BRF.
49:33Chuck Bryant:But it has been shown, again, anecdotally, that it actually does increase your sense of positivity. I know that sounds hippy-dippy, but I believe it actually works. What's BRF? B resting face. Oh, okay. I never heard it in that order. What do you hear it is? RBF. Man, I am off today. We're going to edit that part out too. I think you're doing great. This is a capital episode. Let's see. Oh, there's one other thing too. One more study. Let's hear it. And again, social psychology is taken with a grain of salt, But they found that service employees who have to engage in surface acting, meaning like part of your job is smiling and seem happy, whether you are or not, tend to be heavier drinkers than people outside of the service industry.
50:28Chuck Bryant:That's sad. It is. And that explains why hotel reception people are constantly blotto. If you've ever noticed when you check in, they are wasted to a person. That's why, because they're forced to smile. That's right. Makes sense. You got anything else, man? I got nothing else. This was great. New and improved smiling happiness episode. It was new. Okay, I guess that means it's time for Listener May.
50:57That's right. Might as well finish this one with a correction, you know.
51:01Chuck Bryant:Yeah, I think we should. Hey, guys. From 2011. First time corrector here. No. I wanted to say we love the immense amount of work you put into educating so many people on so many topics for so long. My partner and I are so excited to see your live show in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of the Great White North. And it's probably a good time to mention we're going to six different places in Canada in June and July. And we're super excited. We're trying to move some more tickets in a couple of these, specifically Montreal. So if you're in and around Montreal, I mean, this is it. This is your shot. We'd love to see you there.
51:36Chuck Bryant:Yeah. Yeah. All right. So quick email, guys, about a minor historical mix-up in the Hindenburg disaster episode. Josh, one of you stated. Thank you, Chuck. That the U.S. ace Eddie Rickenbacker took out German ace the Red Baron. Yeah. Manfred von Richthofen. Right. But that's not the case. I'm sorry. The Red Baron was killed on April 21st, 1918 over the Somme. He was low to the ground, chasing an inexperienced Canadian pilot, Lieutenant Wilfred May, Canadian Royal Air Force pilot, Captain Arthur Roy. Brown drove steeply to defend May and fired at the Baron's Fokker triplane. While Brown was officially credited with the kill, modern ballistics, medical exams, and historians favor the theory that the fatal bullet came from Australian ground troops who saw them coming.
52:27Specifically, it's widely believed to have been fired by Sergeant Cedric Popkin or Gunners Robert Buey and William Snowy Evans as Rick Dauphin flew dangerously low over allied lines. As for Eddie Rickenbacker, he didn't even see active aerial combat until April 1918, the very month the Red Baron died.
52:47Chuck Bryant:So, I mean, I'm not a crackpot, right? Like, that's what we've been taught all these years, that Eddie Rickenbacker took out the Red Baron, right? I have no idea. This isn't like a Jacqueline Bissette, Jacqueline Smith type thing. I have no idea because I'm not steeped in that kind of stuff. Like if you say Red Baron, I think of Snoopy. I do too. But I'm saying like I've never done any World War I flying ace research. This was literally taught to me in school as far as I can recall. Well, hey, I believe that. I'm just saying I just don't recall. Well, that's funny. So I wonder who really did it because Australia's got their people.
53:24Chuck Bryant:Canada's got their people. We have our people. Who knows? Yeah. Yeah, my money's on Snowy Evans. Okay, I think that's great. I'll put my money on Snowy, too. Sorry, Rickenbacker. Yeah, and that's Anonymous, by the way. That was a guy and his partner who were big history buffs. I'm not sure why it was Anonymous. There's nothing. I guess they just don't want their name said. So I guess we'll see the Anonymous people in Ottawa. They'll be out there with sacks over their heads. Yeah, for sure. Thank you, Anonymous. Yeah, that wasn't so controversial. but okay, we'll definitely always respect your privacy.
54:02Chuck Bryant:We'll respect your privacy too if you write to us and you're like, do not read my name. We will never do that. You know what I bet it is? Is they don't want to be outed as going to that show because they told their friends that they don't really like that wanted to go with them that they weren't going. Oh, ouch. I'll bet you're right. Yeah. Or some friend asks them to move or drive them to the airport and they're like, we're going to be out of town. Yeah, we're having a painting party. Let's see. Well, I guess that's it. And if you, oh, like I was saying, if you want to be like anonymous, and even if you want to remain anonymous, send us an email.
54:34Chuck Bryant:Send it off to stuffpodcast at iheartradio.com.
54:41Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
55:16We'll see you next time. feel special. It's available 24-7, 365 days a year, and is 100 % based in the U.S. See how it works at ruby.com, or better yet, give them a call at 844-900-R-U-B-Y.
55:34Chuck Bryant:The next time you end up with something on your shirt, don't turn to your usual detergent. Check out Tide Evo. Tide Evo represents over 10 years of innovation and product development. It's a revolutionary 100 % concentrated waterless laundry tile made of compressed microfiber soap layers rather than liquid or powder. It's not pods, and it's not sheets. It uses six layers of detergent fibers to deliver superior cold water cleaning without plastic packaging. It's mess-free, lightweight, and dissolves quickly. Try new Tide Evo, real laundry magic. Making sense of the news is a full-time job, but it doesn't have to be yours.
56:11Chuck Bryant:Not when The Guardian's new podcast, Stateside with Kai and Carter does it for you. Three times a week, journalists Kai Wright and Carter Sherman cut right to it, asking what's actually happening and why does it matter? Drawing on the Guardian's reporting, they provide perspectives on everything from sports to fashion and deliver it with clarity and context. Listen to Stateside with Kai and Carter wherever you get podcasts or watch on YouTube. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
From the publisher
They say that smiling requires fewer muscles than frowning, so why not smile? That doesn’t seem to be true, or at least unproven, and there is lots more about smiling that will keep you glued to your earbuds in this fun episode.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
