1219: Redheads | Skeptical Sunday

25:21I mean, the data points to redheads having a particular affinity for alcohol that others don't. It seems to be related to metabolism and pain sensitivity and less severe hangover symptoms. Ultimately, it's just important to understand that while genetics do play a role, tolerance to alcohol is determined by a variety of factors, not just genes. So lifestyle and body chemistry matter, too. The complex relationship between redheads and alcohol is still being sorted out. But heredity and the body's reaction to alcohol do seem to interact. But it's not like AA meetings or redhead conventions. Right.

26:01Yeah, that's true. So let me get this straight. Redheads might need more anesthesia, but less morphine, can tolerate electric shocks, but freeze under a snowflake. Do medical schools actually teach this stuff? I have to assume that they do. Yeah, they do. Med students learn that redheads respond differently to certain drugs. So, for example, topical or injectable anesthetics like lidocaine, they often work less effectively. So higher doses probably needed for your redheaded patients. But then there's that paradox that they need lower doses of opioid painkillers like morphine. So every anesthesiologist has some sort of secret ginger manual somewhere on their bookshelf?

26:41I think so. I mean, they should have a manual for every patient. But yeah, research shows the MC1R gene influences receptors all over the body. And because it's mutated, redheads react oddly to so many substances. And by studying it, scientists might actually unlock new pain treatments for everyone, regardless of hair color. So redheads are saving the world one lidocaine shot at a time, I guess. And it's not just humans, right? The MC1R mutation shows up across the animal kingdom, like cats, for instance. Male ginger cats are far more common than female ones because the orange fur gene sits on the X chromosome, zone, meaning males only need one copy, but the females need two.

27:28Ah, I came for hair trivia and I'm staying for cat genetics. Yeah, I mean, female cats with the one orange gene, they're the ones that come out the patchy calico or tortoise shell coats. But the MC1R, it's kind of like the weird gene. So overall, redheads have unusual reactions to numerous substances because that gene influences receptors all over our brain. and it makes redheads unusual in a whole bunch of ways. Like all the sunscreen y 'all use. So if you have red hair, sunblock is absolutely necessary, correct? Because of the MC1R light pigment thing? Yeah, absolutely. I call it armor. And like I said before, sunscreen only showed up in the 70s.

28:07So our redheaded ancestors were basically toast. And I feel for all my generations of redheads that came before sunscreen that that could not have been pleasant. But redheads have very little protective melanin, which is why they are at a higher risk for melanoma. And too much sun kills melanocytes. And once they're gone, the cancer risk goes way up. So this shows how much the MC1Rs effects ripple out beyond hair color. Yeah, and skin cancer risks may be one of the best-known facts about redheads. Dermatology studies show over and over that there's no question that red-haired individuals are at a much higher risk for skin cancer than non-redheaded individuals.

28:49Gingers are just more susceptible to damage from the sun, and burning just happens. Yep, nature gave you flammable skin. Pretty much. It certainly gives redheads pale skin, freckles, and sensitivity to the sun. It's like the ginger starter pack. Yeah, so does that make redheads age faster? Weirdly, yes. Bummer. A study in current biology found that people with the MC1R gene mutation, which means redheads, appear at least two years older than people who don't have it. That's not bad. And it isn't from sun damage. The gene itself seems to influence pathways tied to sagging skin and facial aging.

29:29So the studies of the MC1R gene are the first genetic evidence for perceived age. So you look older and then you get more sun damage, which makes you look even older. So if you do everything right, you only look two years older. But if you do everything like a normal person, you look 12 years older. Yeah. If you stay inside, you'll still look older. Not a lot of upside to being a ginger so far. Oh, well, on one bright side, there was a 2020 study that found redheads produce vitamin D faster and at higher levels than those without red hair. Oh, good. Because you can't get vitamin D anywhere else.

30:07Right, right. Hey, give it to me. Yeah, it's$100 for a 10-year supply of vitamin D, maybe less. I don't know. Pale skin plus the EBSI-1R means redheads have evolved to naturally make up for what they lack. So the level of D3 in someone also corresponds to how red the hair is. And the pale skin is actually an evolutionary advantage in cloudy places like where we associate red hair, Ireland and Scotland. Basically, the redheaded body makes homemade natural supplements. So like my kids' Fruit Loops, you're fortified with vitamin D. That's convenient. I am. I am, definitely. And there are more health quirks associated with red hair.

30:51According to a large review study published in 2017, female redheads have a higher risk of gynecological cancers like cervical, uterine, ovarian. And the redder the hair, the higher the risk. So one theory links it to prenatal estrogen exposure, but that hasn't been extensively tested. So, of course, you know, I think the problem here is there's no one shade of red. And these studies rely on women's own rating of how red her hair is, which is just so subjective. It's like it's got to be hard to measure degrees of redheadedness. So red hair might influence your biology before you're even born. I think so.

31:34Yeah. This is all pretty heavy so far. Tell me something fun. Come on. Well, red hair affects blushing, so redheads blush easier and brighter. Okay. Evolutionary theory says redheads developed many abilities to survive where the sun rarely shines. Insert joke about sunburned butts here, I guess. I know. Well, in parts of the world with low intensity UVB rays like central and northern parts of Europe, redheads may be seen more. I guess it makes sense that there's more redheads in Ireland and Scotland because it's just not that sunny there, like you said before. Yeah, sure. But, you know, as we know, redheads do pop up everywhere.

32:12And right now it's estimated that redheads make up about one to two percent of the world population. That may seem like a very low number, but that's about 150 million redheads walking around the world. They're not all in Ireland. But you're right that sections of Ireland, Scotland and Wales have the highest concentration of redheads. It's about 10 percent there. And there used to be a huge redhead gathering once a year in the UK, but it stopped during the pandemic and it hasn't come back. However, in the last week of August of 2025, there was a Redhead Days festival in the Netherlands. Wow. So there really is a redhead festival.

32:52That's hilarious somehow. How does something like that even start? You got to wonder. Yeah. I mean, the one in the Dutch city of Tilburg has been happening for decades. In the 80s, Dutch artist Bart Roenhorst put out an ad in a local newspaper for 15 redheads for an art project, and he got 10 times the response he was expecting, but he just had everyone who responded join in on his group photo. And now it's just turned into this free festival open to all, with the exception of the scheduled official group photo that's restricted to natural redheads. The 2013 gathering of this set a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people with natural red hair, with almost 2 ,000 people posing for the one group photo.

33:35Hilarious. Were you ever part of something like that? No. And in fact, I'll say I lived in Dublin for a year and I traveled all over the island. I was actually surprised at how few redheads I encountered. Really? Yeah. It just didn't seem to me to be overwhelming, but it appeared way more prevalent when I traveled around Scotland and Wales. But redheads are not just restricted to Europeans. So like I mentioned before, there's African-Americans with red hair. So where did this freaky gene originate? Is it like a Viking thing? Yeah, I was convinced there was a Viking thing at one point too. But no, Vikings do not introduce red hair, despite what every redhead Halloween costume has, you believe.

34:15The redheaded gene mutation, it actually predates the Viking age by like tens of thousands of years. I liked the idea that every redhead has a little bit of Thor blood. I thought every ginger was a little bit of an angry Norse god in the first place. They all have that rep. I'm frankly a little disappointed. Yeah, sorry to ruin the fantasy, but I mean, red hair is found among people of Viking descent, don't get me wrong, but it's not exclusive to them. Vikings were as genetically diverse as any society with early man buns and hair colors across the spectrum, blonde, brown, red. So where did the first redheads come from?

34:48Like, was there a is there a ginger Eve somewhere on the books? Not quite Eve, but yeah, genetic mutation first popped up in Central Asia about 50 ,000 years ago. Wow. And as humans migrated to Europe, they just carried the gene with them. And then in sunstarved places like Ireland and Scotland, the pale skin and red hair, it helped with that vitamin D production. And so that's what resulted in pockets of gingers thriving in the fog. I wonder how they even found that it popped up in Central Asia 50 ,000 years ago. Like, are they doing an archaeological dig and they're like, wow, look at this guy.

35:26The carpet matches the curtains of this fossil. It also seems like this information is somewhat new. I mean, I think it's just from how we can do genetic and DNA testing and fossils. Yeah. So you mentioned that vitamin D production or early vitamin D production resulted in pockets of gingers thriving in the fog. So this is like a pre-sunscreen hack to battle the sun. So it's a useful mutation. It's kept you. What does vitamin D prevent again? Is it rickets? There's a lot of hormone stuff related to it because I was deficient. Yeah, I think there's just a lot of a lot of balancing. Yeah. I don't know specifically, but we definitely need it.

36:01That is for sure. Yeah. Wow. But yeah, I mean, definitely you find redheads all over. And it was the Celts who they started in Central Europe. They seem to have a big pocket of it and they help spread the gene all around because they had a nomadic lifestyle. You know, Morocco, for example, has a much higher than average concentration of redheads. There's specific parts of Russia and even South America that have very high populations. Just redheads are found everywhere. Yeah, I've actually seen people from Yemen and Afghanistan with bright red hair in their beards. Yeah. And it's so bright that you think that's fake, but then you realize that a 60-year-old Yemeni guy running a gas station is not dying his beard red, right?

36:44He's just, it doesn't look like the type. He's just a freak, yeah. Yeah, and you see it enough where you're like, there's one place I go to that has amazing friggin' shawarma in Castroville, and it's like a Rotten Robbie gas station with a falafel shawarma place in the back that is epic, and it's run by Yemenis. And the dad has this bright red hair, and he's the guy where I'm just like, yeah, that's not fake. This guy's not dying his beard and walking around this place like that. Like, he's not the guy. But it's very interesting to see that. You see that in photos of people from Afghanistan. I've seen some Taliban photos where guys have bright red beard.

37:20Yeah, I've seen the Taliban photos too. I'm like, oh, that's why they're covering up their heads. And you're thinking like, okay, the Taliban probably also not running to the pink dot to get beard dye, right? So it's probably real. So all these old myths, I guess my point here is that all these old myths are even weirder because if redheads are everywhere and they've been around for thousands and thousands of years all over Central Asia and all over the continent of Europe. Why the superstitions? It's not that rare. It's like being left-handed. Well, I guess if you're left-handed, we should do an episode on that.

37:51Because I think also we have, there are superstitions that people who are left-handed are bad. In fact, I think you even say left in Italian, sinistra, which is like sinister, right? That's got to be related to that. Yeah, I know in the Catholic religion, you couldn't be left-handed if you were studying at the church. you had to write with your writer. Some kind of connection with the devil, which who knows where all these things come from. I mean, maybe. I don't know. That's sort of, I could see that checking out, at least in my case. Humans love to just demonize what's weird and rare. And rare, yeah.

38:26Yeah, the comedian Anissa Nandala, she actually is a bit about how rare it is to see redheads in Uganda. It's hilarious. When I first came to Australia, I didn't know anything about you guys. Like when I saw my first redhead, I lost my shit because I didn't know that you guys came in this edition. The first time I saw a redhead, his name was Stuart. And I kept staring at him because in Uganda, redheads get kidnapped by witches and used for spells.

39:02And I think he looked down on me because I was black. he was like, you must be so happy that you don't live in Uganda. I was like, no, you must be so happy you don't live in Uganda. They'd fuck you up. So, yeah, redheads just collected some truly bizarre folklore everywhere. Some flattering, some really not. So give us the flattering first. Warm us up. Okay, well, in 1886, a French doctor, Augustine Gallopin, he published a book declaring redheads were sexier smelling people. Literally, he thought they emitted a unique intoxicating body odor. Not creepy at all. Perhaps that doctor was just he maybe had a thing for redheads with B.O., which I guess back then in 1886 in France, everyone had B.O.

39:54So whatever. Is that science or is that just the musings of a horny French guy? I think everyone's guess here is the latter. Yeah, that's the kind of rigorous, peer-reviewed research we need more of on this podcast. But his myth has carried on. Today, some people still believe that because of specific skin biochemistry, redheads have a unique smell. Okay, gross. Anyway, I don't believe that. That is some people's belief. I'm just not convinced that that's specific to redheads. But I'm no horny French scientist, so what do I know? I mean, I agree with you. It's just another theory out there. But there is actually attraction data.

40:33So attraction is a really difficult thing to define, but it's real. And some people are just more attracted to redheads like that's their type. And it seems people like Jason Momoa, they assume a lot of things about redheaded behavior. Do you know a little mermaid? That was her question in my office. And I was like, ask him. Ariel. Ariel's very sweet. She's very nice. She's also a redhead, so. Yeah. I'm going to teach you about redheads someday. They're very passionate. Very passionate people. Yeah, these little comments are so common, and they can make me feel pretty misunderstood. Stick around.

41:14These deals are hotter than a ginger's first sunburn. We'll be right back. This ad is brought to you by Vive Healthcare, the makers of Apritude, Cabotegreville. You never skip your SPF and you carry hand sanitizer like an accessory. But what are you doing for HIV prevention? One way to help protect yourself from HIV is Apritude, a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of getting HIV in adults and adolescents weighing at least 77 pounds. You must be HIV negative to receive Apritude and get tested before each injection. If you think you were exposed to HIV or have flu-like symptoms, tell your doctor right away.

41:49More HIV testing may be needed. Apritude does not prevent other sexually transmitted infections. Practice safer sex to reduce your risk. Get APRITUDE as scheduled. Missing doses increases your HIV risk. Don't take APRITUDE if allergic to it or taking certain medicines that may interact. Tell your doctor about your medical conditions, liver problems, and mental health. Serious side effects include allergic reactions or rash, liver problems, and depression. If these occur, get medical help right away. The most common side effect is injection site reaction. Bring your A-game and talk to your doctor.

42:19Learn more at Appertude.com or call 1-888-240-0340.

42:49networks rarely post. It's not because they don't have valuable things to say. It's usually because of time. They don't know what to write. That's where Quilt Mind comes in. Their mission is to help busy executives become LinkedIn famous, so to speak, for a couple of hours a month. For me, the process is really simple. I hop on a call. They pull out the stories and insights we're sharing. They turn those into polished posts that sound exactly like me. So the voice is mine. The ideas are mine. The stories are all mine. Quilt Mind just makes sure it actually gets posted out there consistently. So for me, success on LinkedIn means amplifying the lessons from our incredible podcast guests, sparking meaningful conversations.

43:20If you're curious, check out what I've been sharing lately. If you're ready to step up your own presence, you can reach out to me directly or connect with Quilt Mind at jordanaudience at quiltmind.com. That's Q-U-I-L-T-M-I-N-D.com. Thank you for listening to and supporting the show. It is your support of our sponsors that keeps the lights on around here. All of the deals, discount codes, and ways to support the podcast are searchable and clickable on the website at jordanharbinger.com slash deals. Now for the rest of Skeptical Sunday. But the burning question is, are redheads having more sex? That's what everybody wants to know.

43:54That's what horny French doctors want to know. That's what the horny French doctors try to figure out. I mean, studies show redheaded women report more sexual activity and partners. There was a 2022 study that found redheads become sexually active at an earlier age and report higher sexual desires. There's a German dating app researcher that claims redheads average at least one more hookup per week than blondes or brunettes, however you figure that out. I just, I want to point out these studies all suggest that redheaded women report more sexual activity and more sexual partners. And it's because it's a fetish for some.

44:34Those who are into redheads are just super into redheads. And there's, I don't know, less supply maybe because of the rarity. I mean, maybe. I mean, I don't think that's exactly it. So researching this, I found a weird fact about redheads in the human body. So that 2022 study that looked at 110 women, 34 percent of them redheads, found that they scored higher on measures of sexual desire. They reported more sexual activity and more partners than all the non-redheaded participants. But these studies are somewhat ridiculous, so it's not entirely clear why this is the case. And the authors of it speculate that it could be due to a partner's more frequent attempts to initiate sex rather than the women's desire.

45:20So perhaps it's like a exotic novelty factor. I'm not sure. Or they just love getting down. Yeah, redheaded sluts, Jessica. Daddy chill. But according to this study, the sex lives of women with red hair were clearly more active than those with other hair colors, with more partners having sex more often than the average. And the figures revealed that typically redheads have intercourse at least one more time per week than the rest of the population. So does there are so many questions I want to ask you, but here's the question I'm going to ask you. So does that mean redheads are having more babies as well?

46:00These studies are also so bizarre because they actually show that redheaded women report more fertility issues, but also end up having more children. So they're having more sex and having more babies and scientists are mystified. OK, maybe no surprise. Some of the science dorks can't figure this one out. I can't figure this one out. I don't know. You know, I'm something of a scientist myself. At least I was back in the day. Hopefully I've shaken that reputation by now. Anyway. I mean, this all makes me a gold star redhead. I have red hair, blue eyes and no babies. So could be biology or maybe something more psychological.

46:42It's not data that has been collected enough. But not only do redheads have fertility issues, it's also reported redheads have higher rates of depression and anxiety. Wow. Redheads are high anxiety and high functioning. Maybe that's a reason some people are so into them. You sexy, aromatic, freckly, neurotic mess. Bring that pale ass over here. I will say, and I tried to find actual research about this, but as far as the depression goes, you know, in therapy, doctors like to throw you all kinds of medicine. I was prescribed at one point in my life an SSRI, which is like Welbutrin and those kind of things.

47:24It did the opposite. It did so much damage and I had to immediately be taken off of them. So when I was reading this, I thought, OK, we have higher depression rates. Is it because the medications don't work on redheads? But I couldn't find any research. That's just my experience. But, you know, there's definitely a cultural fetish. So, yeah, some guys treat it like they're collecting rare Pokemon. Like, I've always wanted a redhead. Like, it's not subtle. and I'm not interested in being the shiny Charizard. I don't know about my other redheaded sisters, but I don't want to be somebody's sexual conquest.

48:00And there are really specific studies that actually look at the rates different hair colors get hit on. Did you say Charizard? Is that a Pokemon, by the way? Yes. Ah, I guess I always thought that was Charizard, but you can tell I don't play Pokemon. Because it looks like that's the one that's spelled Charizard, basically, right? Yeah, like lizard, but I think they say it's Charizard. Charizard. I mean, who knows? I'll take your word for it. You can tell me. My pronunciation might be off. Yeah, that's going to be the one thing everybody emails me about this episode. Nothing else is going to be interesting.

48:30It's just going to be all pronunciations of Charizard. So tell me about the, you said different rates hair colors get hit on. Say more about that. What color should we all be dyeing our hair? I mean, well, it depends on the kind of attention you want, but it's true. The studies look at straight women with different hair colors and they show blondes get the most male attention, redheads a little less so. But the same men interviewed later said redheads seem less approachable. So these studies, you know, they're a bit flimsy. And I'm sorry to my redheaded brothers. I didn't come across any similar experiments with men and hair color.

49:06So redheads are bullied and fetishized. That's peak humanity right there, I suppose. And bullied in the strangest ways. Anyways, just a couple of weeks ago in Tucson, this guy went to a city council meeting and just went on this wild rant about how much he dislikes having gingers in town, how redheaded people shouldn't be allowed to have cameras. It's so wild. We got to choke every ginger in town. We can't have gingers run around Sararita. You know, we can't have gingers. We can't have people with a camera. You put a ginger with a camera. We need to get them out of here. We can't have any of them gingers.

49:43And that's basically all I got to say. All gingers should be thrown out of CeraVita. CeraVita is not the place for gingers. If we can throw out all the gingers and bring in more people like Chief Nolan, he knows what to do with gingers. We saw he knows how to handle gingers. And that's how you got to handle gingers is you put them in a headlock and you throw them to the ground and you break their camera. He had a 4K camera. None of us in Tucson can afford a 4K camera. We have to use 1080 or 720, but he had a 4K camera. You've got to break that camera. You can't let anybody with nice cameras like that around CeraVita, especially in the police department.

50:23I thank you for what your chief did, and we need more people like him. We need more people in CeraVita to choke out gingers. Wow. Yeah, I saw that. I thought that, first of all, it looks like a scene out of Parks and Rec. We'll link it in the show notes. I thought it was a joke. I really thought that he was trolling because who the hell is so anti-redhead that they speak at a town hall meeting? What the hell? I was so hoping it was a joke, but this. Yeah. You know, I mean. One of the odds that this 65, 70 year old man is able to deliver something that dry and persuasive and be ironic and not serious.

50:56Yeah. I'll definitely be avoiding the Tucson area. I mean, I just I feel so targeted. This is vitriol. True suns in Arizona. There should be no redheads there anyway, given what you just told me about the sun. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, obviously, this is a very extreme example. I'd like to think most people do not feel this way. No, but there's also an extinction myth I've heard, by the way. Is it true that redheads are slowly disappearing over time and they'll eventually go extinct? Yeah, I have definitely heard that, too. But like it or not, you're stuck with this world. It's just total nonsense.

51:30Redheads could go extinct because the MC1R gene, it's not going anywhere. There will always be some mutations and it's recessive. So even if no ginger babies show up for a while, it will appear maybe even generations later. So it's just a sneaky trait in the gene pool and it can pop up any time both parents are carriers. Genetic roulette. It's like a genetic dating app matching you with a partner that is 98 % compatible to make a child that has red hair. Wow. You're joking. But there are ginger only dating sites. No surprise. Yeah. One's called redheaddates.com. Clever. Very clever. There's a few others for people with that redhead fetish, which is just bizarre to me.

52:15Ew. Yeah. I will say, at least in my experience, you know, people who are into redheads are like enthusiastically into redheads. I don't think you need a dating app. I think you just go to a bar probably. But any dating site that defines people based on a single physical trait is gross. I tend to agree. I should probably go ahead and cancel my subscription to thirdnipplesonly.com. So you'd have to account for all the different shades of red hair, right? Like strawberry blonde, fiery red. The variables seem almost impossible to control. And then it's like, oh, I only want natural redheads. I would filter by natural or dye.

52:55Like, that's so weird. Right. And there's just so many different shades. And that's all about variations in the MC1R gene. And as I've aged, my hair shade has definitely changed. It used to be so crazy bright when I was little. Now it's a bit dulled down. And however the pigment works, redheads skip the part of hair going gray and they just fade to bright white. There's other redheaded statistics that might surprise you. Like redheads are more likely to be in commercials. What? That's a weird one. I suppose. Yeah, I know. But a 2014 report found that 30 percent of TV commercials during prime time featured redheads, despite being only two percent of the population.

53:38And at one point, CBS showed a redhead every 106 seconds. You got to wonder who measured that. That is bananas. That's great. Were you ever in a commercial? When I was a kid, I was. Oh, wow. Now that I work in the entertainment industry. I spend a lot of time on studio lots and I get a surprising amount of extra work thrown out to me for someone not interested in being an actor. So I do pop up in the background on shows like like that HBO show The Pit I was in. There's a lot of studio audience shots I get pulled into. They pull you into it. So they're like, we're filming the audience, but everyone has dark hair.

54:14Go get Jessica. Yeah. PAs will come be like, hey, do you want to sit in on this for a minute just for these you know to pan across the audience yeah they pan across the audience not in real time so yeah get pulled into it it's hilarious there's a show called platonic that recently wanted all the redheads around for a wedding reception scene because the male character was a redhead so they wanted to make it seem like the whole family was redheads which not quite how it looks in the real world but it was fun and and it was cool to see on film, just a whole room full of redheads. I wonder if there's something red hair does for our senses.

54:50Does Wendy, you know, the Wendy the Fast Food logo, does she have red hair to entice me to buy a Frosty or a burger? I mean, red is associated with appetite. So a lot of restaurant logos use the color red. That could explain the high rate of redheads in advertising. But so many cultural characters, you know, think about it. The Little Mermaid, Merida, the main character from Brave, Wilma Flintstone and her baby were redheads. And then, of course, Jessica Rabbit, Strawberry Shortcake. The list just goes on. It makes the characters stand out, at least the female ones. Not sure if that one is offensive or not.

55:27There's a lot of anime men with red hair, I think. You know, it doesn't have to all be women. Yeah, for sure. And people just seem to like it more in a female. I'm not sure why. Prince Charming in Beauty and the Beast was a redhead, though. So good thing for redhead guys. is that it's shown that redheads are funnier. Well, clowns do tend to have red hair. I actually, my nephew is a redhead. My sister and her husband, neither of them are redheads. And my brother-in-law definitely was uncomfortable with the fact that his son was a redhead. Like when he was little, just, oh, it'd be easier if it was a girl.

56:07I don't know why that stigma exists. Weird. But yeah, clowns have red hair. According to Professor Andrew Scott, who teaches the history of comedy at the University of Buffalo, we first began to see the circus clown as we know it, complete with face paint and brightly colored wigs in the early 19th century. The wigs needed to be bright so that they could be seen from the backs of these large theaters. So red was just the obvious choice. I see. It is easy to keep track of my redheaded friends and crowds. You ever go to a rave or something? You're like, how am I going to? Oh, there he is. Oh, yeah.

56:43People always find me. There's 3 ,000 people. There's 10 ,000 people here. How am I going to find them? Well, there's three redheads. I've never been lost. Yeah. I mean, we don't really blend in. And as clowns evolved, red hair just became symbolic. It reflects the cultural image of the influx of Irish immigrants in early American history because like Ronald McDonald, for example, that's spelled the Irish way, not the Scottish way. So you're not a witch. You're just designed differently. Redheads aren't cursed. They're supercharged mutants with vitamin D skills and pain quirks. Exactly. And maybe don't make fun of your redheaded coworker.

57:19She might live longer than you. But look older. She might look older, but she might feel less pain. She might be better in bed. So just be nice. We can't help it. And the research that has been done on the world's gingers indicate that they do put up with a lot and could be considered genetic superheroes. So it might not be the type of thing Marvel would take an interest in, but the bodies of redheads are incredibly resilient as their altered genes give them different DNA and by extension, a host of other unique abilities. And we don't need a radioactive animal bite. We're just born this way. Well, to all my ginger friends out there, may your sunscreen be thick and your MC1R jeans be proud.

58:01Thanks, Jess. Stay pasty. Thanks, everyone, for listening. Topic suggestions for future episodes of Skeptical Sunday to me, Jordan at JordanHarbinger.com. Advertisers, deals, discounts, ways to support the show, all at JordanHarbinger.com slash deals. I'm at JordanHarbinger on Twitter and Instagram. You can find Jessica on her sub stacks, plural, between the lines and where shadows linger. We'll link to that in the show notes. I guess you can't have just one substack, Jessica. God forbid. This show is created in association with Podcast One. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Tata Sidlowskis, Robert Fogerty, Ian Baird, and Gabriel Mizrahi.

58:36Our advice and opinions are our own. And yes, I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer. Of course, we try to get these episodes as right as we can. Not everything is gospel, even if it might be fact-checked. So consult a professional before applying anything you hear on the show, especially if it's about your health and well-being. Remember, we rise by lifting others. Share the show with those you love. If you found this episode useful, please share it with somebody else who could use a good dose of the skepticism and knowledge we doled out today. Any redheaded friends or family would be good candidates for this one, I think.

59:02In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn. And we'll see you next time. This episode is sponsored in part by What Was That Like? podcast. What does it feel like to watch your house burn down, be attacked by an alligator, or learn that your spouse hired someone to kill you? If you're dying to know, then What Was That Like? is the podcast for you. What Was That Like is filled with real stories about the most surreal experiences of people's lives. On the show, host Scott Johnson dives deep with his guests into the unbelievable situations they found themselves in.

59:32Animal attacks, plane crashes, winning the price is right, and more. This show brings you tons of completely surreal, completely true stories, all told through the lens of the person who experienced it. Check out some of these wild and gripping stories to gain some insight on what it was like to lose a leg to a shark attack, and what it was like to be a professional bridesmaid. Totally fascinating episodes. So if you want to hear some disturbing and inspiring first-hand stories, you need to check out What Was That Like? Every story is thoroughly researched and fact-checked so you know even the most bizarre tales are someone's reality.

1:00:00Listen to What Was That Like on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.