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And boy, this was a good one. There's a lot of a lot of things people don't understand about earwax and what you should do with it and what you shouldn't do with it.

So this was very instructive for both of us and should be for you as well. So enjoy and don't ear candle, for God's sake. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know. A production of I Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast, I'm Josh Clark. This chose to be Chuck Bryant. There's Jerry. Uh, yeah, it's stuff you should know. He just shrugged. Yeah. Like, what are we going to do? That's what we are.

Episode number seven something. Yeah, I've have no idea. Don't need in the seven hundreds of folks. If you think there's only 300, if you're on iTunes, you're in for the be surprised. Yeah. Well, somebody tweeted recently, I've just found that HowStuffWorks app and there's way more stuff you should knows than there is on iTunes.

I hate you guys now. All right. Wait, I was cool with three hundred and one, but that's it.

I had someone asked me the other day if we feel like we're running out of things topics, clearly we are because we're recording on your way.

Yeah, exactly. What you don't look for boogers in the near future? Um, no. I said no, that sometimes it feels a little like, oh my gosh, what are we going to do? Yeah, but there's gazillions of topics in the world at least, and gazillions of scientific.

That's right. What is that. How many zeros. Is that a real number. I don't know. I don't think it is.

Let's say 90. It's a real number if you're eight years old. But watch it probably is a real number.

Yeah, I think a jillion is a real number. A bazillion Chilean definitely is, I would guess gazillion is by now, I might actually look that up. I mean, there's just like a handful of mathematicians who are in charge of naming that kind of stuff, you know, so chuckers. Yes.

Well, you look that up. Do you have earwax? Um, do you have a problem?

Earwax, none. No, I don't either. No, I wouldn't say so.

Um, it is a little distressing, though, even though we will find out it is awesome and exactly how it's supposed to work. Yeah. When it just sort of falls out of your ear onto your shoulder. Yeah. That's that's ideal actually.

Yeah. Because earwax in your physiology in general doesn't care about what social group you're a part of. Nope. It's just like here's some earwax on your shoulder, deal with it.

Although and I didn't look up why this is true. Apparently in North-Eastern Asian countries like Korea and China, they their earwax is a little different. They're more likely to have the dry earwax. Right. Which can be hard and red to black in color, which sounds gross and flaky or pale yellow. Whereas over here we have that. Nasty, gooey orangy mess, wet earwax is what it's called.

Yes, and the reason why actually is because of the ABC 11 gene. Was that way. Yeah, they isolated the gene then was a risk causes the type of earwax that you get. And it turns out that, say, the W mutation is or the D mutation, dry earwax is recessive.

So the only way to get dry earwax is if both your parents have dry earwax, both carry the gene or D mutation or the ABC 11 gene. Well, I have both. Most people are W.D.. Oh, OK. Yeah. So you have to get to deals to dry earwax illegals to have dry earwax yourself.

If you have a W in a D or two, you're going to have wet every summer.

But I have both can't you will like one is dry and the other sweat knows like some you know if I get the old cotton swab out which right now you're introducing something way beyond genetics.

That's even epigenetics, that's human intervention.

Point is, if I get the cotton swab out, that's when I'll get out the orangey wet stuff. But I'll also have the dry, flaky stuff that falls out sometimes.

Probably, I would guess. And I'm no Saruman expert. Yeah, I'm no immunised now.

What's the what's the word? I actually looked it up for someone who studies this. Oh, really? It has to have to do with salarymen.

Hmm, I can't find it now, so ceremonious doesn't ring a bell. No, it's not. It's wrong. I can't find what it is.

Sorry. OK, well the person who said I'm not a person who studies earwax.

OK, but what I would guess is that when you're when you're digging in there, you're getting to the fresher earwax. That's what I think. And then as it works itself further and further out your ear. Yeah. Which is the natural process, it's exposed to drier air, the ambient air, and it dries out and flakes off, which is what it's supposed to do.

Yeah, I think so. I don't think you have both. I think if you have both, the stuff inside your ear would be dry.

Would be dry as well. Yeah. OK. All right.

Well that makes sense. Um so what earwax is or uh Saruman c you mean is the scientific name. But I'm sure they call it Wacks, it's the third chubby angel in the cerebrum. Oh, yeah, it is made up of secretions of a couple of little specialized glands in the skin on the outer third of the ear canal.

Yes. So you have your sebaceous glands and they're going to secrete in these names. All sounds so gross, really, but they're perfect for describing what they are.

Yeah. Yeah. They secrete Sebum Essive. Um, uh, and then you have an apple Kreen sweat glands. It's modified that produces uh. It's got him. Yeah.

It combined, it combines with the CMM and that's where you get your Saruman.

And so sebum in and of itself is fairly normal if you like, take your fingertip and rub it along side where your nose folds into your face. Yeah, I get a little dry skin there. That's well if if your stuff is at all oily, the oil is stable. OK, so apparently it mixes in in your ear with the the that kind of epicurean gland, like you said, to form Surman, which is its own thing. It's not just sebum.

Right.

But all of it is basically a fatty, oily, flippity compound that's secreted by these glands in the skin cells.

Unspecialized glands.

Yeah, about 60 percent keratin, which is a protein. And then, like you said, the fatty acids, you've got dead skin cells, you've got hair follicles that bugs.

Little bugs. Yeah. Lots of stuff that comes out in this and like like you said, dust, it probably dust mites then, too. Sure. And like you said, it's produced in the inner third of the outer ear, outer one third of the ear canal, OK?

Yeah. And when it's produced in there, it migrates outward thanks to the motion of the ocean.

Right. And you talking and chewing. Oh, is that what it is. Yeah. I couldn't figure out like how does your earwax move.

But it's just from your movement. Normal jaw movement. Yeah. The old or the newer stuff outward.

And as it's coming out, all the gunk and stuff is protected ear from are moved out with it. So the stuff that flakes off and falls on your shoulder that everybody points and laughs at, at the at the party. Yeah.

That is filled with all of the stuff that your earwax caught along the way. It's a it's a beautiful, elegant process, probably the most beautiful aspect of the entire human experience. Well, I think you're making a joke, but I really do think that, like, it's the little things like that about like I'm amazed about the function of the brain and, of course, the organs and all that. But just something as simple as that mechanical talking and chewing will work earwax out of your ear.

It's just so basic. And I think it's awesome. I think it's really cool, actually. I know what you mean. I agree with you.

So some people produce a lot of this. Um, I was going to say gross stuff, but have you seen Paddington?

The movie, yeah, now I heard was really good. It's very good. Super, super cute. Really well done. What did you see that? Just because it's a cute movie. Really? Yeah, I saw it in theaters and everything. All right.

Please tell me you took you. Me? Yeah. Yeah. And as a matter of fact, there was just me and you. Me in the whole theater.

But if it's just you and their kids, right. Then it's like somebody might want to call the security and they did.

I'm just a Paddington fan, but I am now. Yeah. So anyway, there is a part where there's a part featuring earwax in Paddington and. Oh really it's it does not celebrate the beauty of earwax. It's the exact opposite.

It actually you is like oh really. Go on there.

It was really gross boasting. Awesome. So go see, go see Paddington.

That is spoiler. No, no. OK, I don't think so. Maybe for like a five year old, you know.

Um, so like I said, some people produce a lot of the stuff. Some people don't produce as much and they don't really know why, but they do know that sometimes stress and anxiety can increase production of your wax, which is interesting.

Hormones to hormones affected your glands go off. It also said that some drugs can increase your earwax production. And I looked all over and did you find the drugs?

But if stress and anxiety does ayahuasca, I imagine, yeah, cocaine would probably make you produce more earwax or something.

Oh, yeah. When you put that stuff in your ear.

Yeah. There's something that makes you like to your jaw a lot. Oh sure. That could probably get more earwax out. Yeah. Interesting. I never thought about that.

I couldn't find any anything else.

Um is grosz's you might think earwax is though. It actually is a great thing for your body and there's a very good reason uh why you have it, because there are four main functions that your ear wax is going to serve my friend. OK, uh, one of them is it creates an acidic environment that's great. That kills helps kill bacteria and fungi. Oh.

Even better NO2. Um it is. Well that's that's a big deal to you because your ear, your inner ear like that is really the place where fungus and bacteria would thrive because it's moist and dark. And you know what we always say about moist, dark places, fungi thrives.

That's right. The thing is, this doesn't seem like that be a big problem to have fungi in your ear. But it would because it would affect things like your balance. Yeah, nausea, earaches. It just wouldn't be good. So the fact that earwax produces an acidic environment alone makes earwax a beautiful thing and to be celebrated. So if we could just stop there, we could. But you can go on. Like you said, there's four and that was just one quarter of these these benefits that your ex bestows.

Uh, secondly, it is a lub it lubricates your ear canal basically to keep it from drying out. And, um, you know, you don't want the inner ear becoming all like itchy and dry and krakatit know and you want to hear something weird that I knew.

Personal hygiene thing I have to do as of yesterday, starting yesterday, something I'll probably have to do my hair. I have to moisturize my ears.

Now, I thought you can say hair inside the ear. I was like, I haven't been doing that for a while. It's getting I got a little fro inside your fro. Yeah.

But no, like taking moisturizer and like rubbing on my ears because I got a haircut yesterday and like my ears were exposed and all of a sudden I'm like, wait, why is like there a streak of white on my ear and they're bright red. And I really it's like my ears are chapped and that is brand new or else I just noticed it. So I'm in ear moisturizer now. Yeah.

You had that 70s earmuff hairstyle cut off of your ears, right. So your ears were exposed. Yeah, it was pretty 70s when I was growing my hair to to create like a blank slate of, you know, that could be worked with.

It was kind of longish for you. I was really long and it was that 70s, like your mouth thing wasn't quite it was getting there.

It looks good. Very nice. Thanks. You did that make you uncomfortable? No, I was fishing for that.

The whole reason I brought that story, you looked either sheepish or really uncomfortable with a little bit both. All right, gotcha.

All right. Number three on top four things that earwax does, uh, is your Saruman and your hair just like Letterman? Exactly. Um, it's going to discourage, uh, everyone's worst nightmare, which is a spider crawling in their arms, which I covered. You know, that happened to Emily. I think I talked about that on one of the shows. Right. That was genuinely one of the most awesome things that I've ever experienced because it did not happen to me.

Wasn't there a picture?

Didn't you post a picture of it or something like that?

Um. No, but there I think I posted a picture of a happiness, a woman in China, I think, OK, that was frightening.

And it was a picture of a spider looking out the woman's ear canal, right? Yeah, yeah.

But Emily's if people haven't heard the story, it was I think it was in the middle of the night or something. She was like, I got this weird fluttering in my ear and I don't know what's going on in there. And it's like, well, you know, took her in the bathroom and shined a light.

And I was like, holy crap.

And the spider, I think worked, didn't it, with the flashlight. Remember, like, if you look at your I don't know, I did the very saying.

Yes, yes. OK, so there you go. Well, all I remember thinking is, Emily, I don't want to have to break this to you, but you know, the spider in your ear.

You didn't like chloroform her first. I should have. Yeah, you should.

Yeah, she was not excited about that. Sure. She was not pumped, but. Well, what was the process for getting it out? Well, I've looked on the Internet super quickly to see how and they said to flush it out and you just squeeze a little warm.

Oh my gosh. You did use tweezers. Yeah. And and I put the water in there and it kind of loosened it up and went in there and got the tweezers. And I was like, look at this. How big was it? Oh, I mean, it was a huge. But it was it was enough spider for her taste. Sure. Yeah. More than enough. Right.

Dude, it was I can't imagine that some people like sleep with Vaseline in their ears to prevent that, to keep bugs from crawling in. Yeah. Like that is the thing. Yeah. I mean people don't want bugs in their ears. No but that's taken.

I mean that's a severe paranoia. I think if you're sleeping with earmuffs or Vaseline in your ears. Yeah. You know, earmuffs. I hadn't thought about that. Oh.

So you all right. And number four, finally is your earwax is going to trap some dead skin and hair cells and basically all of that junk to carry it back out, to keep it clean. So it sounds sort of counterintuitive to trap that stuff, but it's trapping it so it can carry it out. And if you didn't have the earwax, it would just go in there. Right.

And if you chew things like celery and you talk, then the earwax is going to work its way out in a slow process where all this stuff is cleaned out and you don't ever have to do anything with it under ideal circumstances. Not always are circumstances ideal. And we'll talk about how things can go wrong after this.

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No solution, no vision, no. OK, Chuck, so ideally, you don't have to ever think about earwax or anything like that to brush it off your shoulder, right? Sure. But, um, for some people, earwax can build up and become impacted. A lot of times it's because people mess with it, like with cotton swabs on a stick. Yeah.

You know, you may have seen the advertisement game. I think they're just cotton swabs. Right. Yeah.

OK, so when if you use that, a lot of people use those to clear out their earwax, right? Yeah. You're not supposed to know. It's doing the exact opposite because your earwax is created and moves from the outside third of your inner ear. When you rub a cotton swab on it, you're actually pushing it in further than it's supposed to be. And it can't get out is easily there.

So what you're going to do eventually is have earwax buildup.

Yeah. And it's it's so hard to get people to not do that because it's so rewarding. When you get out of the shower and use that swab and you get that orange gunk and you're like, oh, man, I'm so glad that's out of my body.

But it's it's got a purpose. Leave it there. You're supposed to leave it there.

Plus, there's I mean, using cotton swabs can lead to other kinds of dangers, like you can push too hard and perforate your eardrums. Sure.

Yeah, I think it really is true. You're not supposed to put anything larger than the end of a football in your ear.

You can also clean it too much. Yeah, it can result in something called swimmer's ear. Yep. We're basically for people who spend a lot of time in the pool, their ears are constantly irrigated. Yeah. And the canal becomes basically free of of earwax and as a result bad things can happen.

Yeah.

And they say if you do have swimmer's ear, put a few drops of acidic, slightly acidic, not acid like hydrochloric acid, it's put a 55 gallon drum of hydrochloric acid into what is a slightly acidic fluid.

I wonder, uh, let me. Lemon juice. That's what I would guess. That's probably what I would do. I hope we're not advising something that's really neat. No, as a matter of fact, maybe you should go look up what you should put it or go to your doctor.

Yes, but they advise some slightly acidic fluid in the air after you swim and that Stabat re-establishes what should be a normal acidic environment.

Yeah, because you when you strip out that earwax, you lose those big four benefits and all of a sudden your ear is dry and cracky and you've got fungus and bacteria growing in there and you get ear infections and it's not fun.

The big four back to creating a buildup of earwax. You get what's called Surman Impaction Griff's, and that is when you have a bunch of earwax pressed against your eardrum. Yeah. And it can result in all sorts of stuff like headaches, nausea, earaches, coughing for some reason. And that can be from using cutups. People who use hearing aids run into this a lot. Yeah. And when your sermon becomes impacted, you have to go to the doctor.

That's right.

Which my sweet wife had to go to the doctor when she was a little girl because. Oh, really. Earwax impaction. Yeah. Know. And she said it sucked.

Well when you go to the doctor, if it comes to that they're going to have quite a few techniques they could use. Ear surrendering is one of them.

And it's painful. It does.

I don't think it is though. I bet it's actually quite a relief. Yeah, it's not how I here. Really. Is it painful. Yeah, because it really is not fun. Well, I didn't know if that was like a five year old. You, me or. Well yeah. Yeah.

But even as an adult she remembers that is not being very fun. This Paddington. You me. Right. Maybe that's why she had such a reaction.

Maybe um they'll use other instruments sometimes you use a microphone or I'm sorry, a microscope. That'd be weird to magnify the ear canal. They shout into it to shatter your earwax.

Um. And some people have a more narrow ear canal. Yeah, or if you have a perforated ear drum or something, that can be a problem. Um, basically you want to go to a doctor, you could try some home methods like peroxide or maybe mineral oil.

Yeah, apparently warm mineral oil kind of breaks it up a little bit. Yeah, that's one of my most pleasing memories as a kid when I had earaches, as my mom would like heat up mineral oil and put it my ear, but I felt really nice, very warm. And when for some reason I like the feeling of water closing my ear, like when I get in the pool.

Oh yeah. But probably because of that. Yeah, maybe so. I don't think about that. Do you like that or what.

I was just you just like crawl into the fetal position. Yeah. Why is Chuck just floating in the pool like a baby.

I know I've never had much of an affinity for water in my ears because some people hate it. I don't hate it. I don't like it. Yeah.

And like, you know, bang on the side of my head if it feels like there's like a drop of water in there, does that work?

Uh, it can not always. I think normally the water just has to dry. Right. Sometimes I get dizzy and my head hurts. Yeah. I used to see when I lifeguarded, I would see swim team members do that, though.

And I was always like, I don't know if that just didn't seem right once in a while. It does. Yeah. And it just goes on and all of a sudden you can hear normally again. Interesting. I didn't see the reason for this, but they did in this one article I saw have cautioned people against ear irrigation. If you had diabetes.

Oh what. Yeah. Why.

I have no idea. I meant to follow up on that. So we don't know what drugs cause an increase in earwax build up and we don't know why.

If you have diabetes, you shouldn't do ear canal irrigation. I don't know. They said not to use irrigation. If you have a perforated eardrum, you don't get that tube in the eardrum, a weakened immune system or diabetes. Huh, I've no idea what the follow up on social media let people know, OK, but they do say if you do want to clean your ear, it's not like you can't clean your ears, but just wash your external ear with a cloth.

But you should never stick something into your ear canal. Right.

It's just no good. But it's interesting that the cotton swab business is huge.

I mean, they've made a if you think about it, they've made I don't want to say it's. They shouldn't be selling these things. Now I know what you mean. You know, yeah, apparently I couldn't find out how much people spend on cotton swabs every year, how many are produced.

We can find out that either. But for 2011, apparently, Americans spent 63 million dollars on ear cleaning stuff, homier cleaning stuff. And I imagine a lot of that went to cotton swabs, but also like home irrigation kits and stuff like that.

Yeah, because you can get those at the drugstore, right? Right. And those are fine, I guess. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, everything is upside down right now.

Well, no, no, I think the irrigation is fine if you don't fall into one of those categories that I mentioned because you're not sticking an object in your ear.

That and then if you don't do it too frequently to where you're stripping the earwax out of your ear. Right.

Because it's not like that thing just replenishes overnight, guys.

I know and you know, I used to cotton swabs, not a lot, but occasionally. But I'm not going to do it anymore. But it is like I said, it's it feels so good to get a big hunk of that stuff out. Yeah.

I've never been into those. Yeah, I'm no, I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm going to only two. I'm going to burn all that stuff.

All I do is I take some soap and lather my hands, do the outside of my ears and then like I, I guess I just kind of follow the contours of the inside of my ears. And I'm trying to remember, like, do I go into my ear canals? And I think I intuitively stop with your fingers. Yeah. At about the outside. So I don't really go into the ear canal and then rinse it out and get off and get out of the shower.

And then now I, I, I moisturize my ears after the last step.

That's great. Um, the other thing too that they of course you should never ever do like cotton swabs is one thing but like a karki. Yeah. Or Bobby pin or like a toothpick. What is wrong with you. I don't know. You should never ever stick something like that in your ear because you're just asking for trouble. Big trouble.

Um, all right. Well, after this break, we are going to talk about ear candling.

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No foundation, no vision, no. All right, Chuck, you teased everybody with your candling, why don't you tell me what that is? It's hokum. OK, describe the hokum.

Well, you're candling. A lot of people don't know this. I think I think a lot of folks say like, oh, my gosh, it's the best thing ever. It is also known as auricular candling or coning. And it is a procedure when she put a cone shaped, waxy cone shaped device in the ear canal. Um, and it's usually like a plate underneath it between the cone in your ear.

Right. And you light it on fire. And supposedly what it does is that you stick the thing in your ear and then light it on fire.

Yeah. Yeah.

Supposedly what it does is it creates a vacuum to pull out impurities.

Right, because the flame supposedly needs oxygen. Well, the flame definitely needs oxygen to burn and it's getting its oxygen by sucking it out of the ear canal through the cone. Right. Hence creating a vacuum. And as it does, like you said, it sucks out impurities and earwax and supposedly also clears your sinuses. Right. Um, clears the the plaque out of your dendrites and all sorts of stuff like that. Yeah.

This one article by Lisa Rowe Rosen IMed said she went to and this is in the 90s, but she went to a discovery expo in Atlanta and said that they had Iraqi handlers there. And one of the exhibitions and the lady said that ran the booth, quote, It cleans the whole had brains and all.

They're all connected, you know, the quote in there. Oh, yeah. End quote.

And of course, it was in Atlanta. I'm like, oh, great. Although that doesn't necessarily mean that could be anywhere. Yeah, you're right. Sure. But there is there are a lot of people that think, you know, it's, um, it's a cleanse for your ear and it does connect to your brain and it clears your head. And it's a spiritual thing. And, you know, they don't know where exactly it came from, but, uh, China and ancient Tibet and.

Yeah, Columbia in South America, Atlantis. Yeah. They all are cited as places where it might have happened.

Yeah. No one has any idea where this stuff originated. It could have been created in the US in the 70s. For all anybody knows.

Should we read some of the things that supposedly helps. Yeah, we should probably also say if you haven't been able to tell by now, science is thoroughly debunked ear candling. That's right.

And this is from that article, there's some that Dr. Rosen and some of her colleagues got together and kind of step by step took down the idea.

Yeah, there's a list of like 40 things. We won't go through them all. But Reles Vertigo clears the eyes, purifies the blood, aids sinusitis, relieves earaches, opens and aligns your chakra, releases blocked energy, reduces stress and tension stabilizes your emotions.

Um, it does none of that because it has it has just been proven to be an outright not only fraud, but dangerous. Right.

So here's why. So the first one is that you can't pass liquids and gases through an eardrum that isn't perforated or ruptured now. So it's not sucking anything out of your inner ear or your lymph system or your sinuses or your brain.

That's why your ears pop when you're in a plane. Right. If you could pass air through there, that wouldn't happen. There would be no atmospheric pressure going on. Right.

So that means that sticking your candle in your outer ear is not going to suck anything out because it can't pass through. That's that's point one, right.

That's point one. Point two is oxygen. Well, it'll create that vacuum and suck out the impurities. Yeah.

And that is just not true. Yeah.

Apparently they tested it and yeah. Doing trials of your candles, they weren't able to create a vacuum in any of them. So there's no vacuum created. That's right.

There is also the idea that if a vacuum were created, it would suck impurities out apparently after ear candling. Some of these at least one of the same trials studied the stuff, the residue that was found afterward, like, I guess in the stump of the ear candle.

Well, yeah, and that's what people point to, because there's all this gunk and they're like, look at all this stuff that came out of my ear. Oh, my God. Right.

So what it turns out to be is ash from the ear candle and leftover wax from the ear candle.

But not just the ear candle. Not earwax. No, just the candle residues.

Yeah. Like they tested the substance. It is not cerebrum, OK, in any form or fashion.

The what about the idea that it's safe and effective. I think we took care of the affective part. Yeah.

But the safe thing, apparently there's a lot of injuries you can get from it that you can be burned is one thing. Sure, you can perforate your eardrum, you can get infections, you can get buildup of the candle wax to replace whatever wax you think you're getting out. Yeah, it could have the reverse effect.

Exactly. And then one woman actually died from a fire that was caused in 2005 from ear candling. I looked it up. She was doing it, I guess, by herself on her bed and the ear candle fell out of her ear and cut her bed sheets on fire. And she made it out of her house. Fine. But she was asthmatic and had an asthmatic reaction to the smoke and died.

How did it happen that fast? I don't know. I guess she had some celebrities like bedsheets or something. All right. That were made out of, like some flammable material.

Like there is a company I won't name the company, but one company that made it. And if you it came with a 75 page manual and a 30 minute videotape, I guess this is a while ago. It was a videotape and candles and plate guards and flame retardant cloths and oil and then otoscope. And if you read the flyer with this kit, it says, quote, It supplies you with everything you need for a safe and effective session of entertainment free for entertainment purposes only.

Yeah, because apparently I think it says that Canada regulates those things are the US does is medical devices if they make any health claims.

Yeah, I think they're illegal in Canada outright. Gotcha. Or at least they were. I'm not sure if they still are, but yeah, the FDA won't even I mean, you can't make any kind of claim right on the box. If you if you get an ear candle that you're a little health food store, just read it carefully.

They can't make any claims for entertainment purposes only because it's a hoot to put a candle in your ear, light it on fire.

There is one other thing I came across in the articles you sent me, and I don't know if it's true, but it sounds fantastic that if if you could create a vacuum with an ear candle, the negative pressure created by the vacuum would rupture your eardrum. Right. Which sounds pretty awesome. Yeah, I don't know if it's true. Wasn't backed up with a source or anything like that.

I couldn't find it anywhere else, but it's pretty hilarious. Yeah. So don't ear candle people and if you. You write in and say, no, you should see the stuff that comes out, it is not your earwax, you should put that stuff beneath the gas chromatograph and see what you think.

I mean, it's proven this is like what was we talked about recently in crop circles. Yeah. And we got heat from that to people like, no, it's not proven.

What was it?

I think it was that the lowest crop circles were like, no, they've proven that these guys came out and said, we made it up.

No, I know what they were saying, though. Like, it's just like we were talking about with the Espy's because you can disprove. Right. Right.

Some of it doesn't mean that disproves all of it except with crop circles. We should come up with the stuff he should in a t shirt. Friends, don't let friends get your candle go.

Yeah. Yeah. Just love your earwax. Yeah. Let it fall out on your shoulder and let someone pointed out and you say, that's nature, baby. Yeah. Because I eat celery. Yeah.

Uh, if you want to know more about earwax, you can type that word into the search bar at HowStuffWorks dot com. I think we have it down is one word maybe. Uh, yeah. Uh, and, uh, I said search bar, which means it's time for listing around.

I'm going to call this ice cream follow up, we got a lot of good stuff on ice cream. Yeah, we did. People really like that episode.

Hey guys, I'm a student at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Sorry. Listen to your podcast just this week. And I'm officially hooked. I'm listening to your podcast on ice cream. It's really interesting because I've worked an ice cream parlor for the last five summers. Wilson's opened in 1986 and it's still going strong today, one of the most famous restaurants in Wisconsin. There are definitely different types of vanilla ice cream. Yeah, we used to type French or delux vanilla and purple vanilla.

The label on this other vanilla is purple. We use purple vanilla for Shaikh's and malt because it's less rich, allows for the flavor of the Shaker malt to be more distinguished. These are French vanilla and ice cream cone sundaes and float's. And you mentioned having root beer floats reminded me of an interesting thing. But I've noticed people often get offended when they order a black cow and we have to ask them what it is. That's because almost everyone has a different idea of what a black cow consists of.

Some say that it's a root beer float. Some say that it's a root beer float with chocolate ice cream. Some say it's a Coke float. Some say it's a blended root beer float, et cetera, et cetera. Somehow they all got labeled as black cow. Thanks for giving me more ice cream knowledge. I'll actually be able to answer customers now when they ask what the difference between ice cream and frozen yogurt is. And that is from Andrea Nelson.

And she says, P.S., those nasty cheap cones with the flat bottoms are known as cake cones.

Yeah, I saw that afterward. Don't order them ever there. I mean, if you're at Jason's Deli and that's all they got.

Oh, is they have the free ice cream, right?

Yeah. And that's how I was like the day that we recorded ice cream and I couldn't remember the name of the cone.

I think I ended up going that night and there it was, cake cone.

I was like, yes, somebody else called it a wafer cone. But I think that's just wrong.

I see where that would come from because it's way for. Yeah. I mean, it makes sense, but I've never seen you call that before, and that's too close to a waffle cone. Right. You know. Right.

Makes people confused. So thanks, Andrea Nelson for that one. Thanks, Andrea. If you want to get in touch with us to say hi or to tell us about ice cream or anything like that, you can tweet to us. That's why as a podcast, you can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff. You should know you can send us an email, the Stuff podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com. And as always, you can join us at our home on the Web, the luxurious stuff you should know Dotcom.

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