In this episode we discuss:
The minimum amount of exercise required for brain health. It's less than you think
Your Houseguests ARE judging you.
Use spicy food to boost creativity.
A list of high paying jobs that don't require a college degree.
And a look back at technological and social changes over the last 100 years.
For more information, and to sign up for our private coaching, visit tesh.com
Our Hosts:
John Tesh: Instagram: @johntesh_ifyl facebook.com/JohnTesh
Gib Gerard: Instagram: @GibGerard facebook.com/GibGerard X: @GibGerard
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:03):
Welcome to the podcast John Tesh with Gib Gerard got
some great stuff for you today.
Let's talk about exercise andbrain health. Oh yeah. So here's
the question, Gib, what is theminimum amount of exercise that
we need for better brain health?
They now know, apparently,according to a study from
Washington University School ofMedicine in St Louis, it is 25
(00:26):
minutes a week. That's it lessthan four minutes a day, and it
could help, of course, you haveto run a mile in four minutes.
No, just kidding, it's they say,it could help, quote, bulk up
your brain and improve yourability to think as you grow
older. It's 25 minutes a week.
This according again, to thatstudy at Washington University,
they scanned the brains of morethan 10,000 healthy men and
women from ages 18 to 97 that isa massive study. They found that
(00:48):
those who walked, swam, cycled,or did any kind of moderate
workout for 25 minutes a weekdid have bigger brains than
those who didn't, no mattertheir ages, and bigger brains,
of course, typically meanhealthier brains. The
differences were most pronouncedin parts of the brain involved
with thinking and memory, whichshrink as we age and contribute
to cognitive decline anddementia. Are that many people
(01:09):
doing less than 25 minutes.
That's that's the real takeawaythat I have from this, which is,
you know, it doesn't we, we havewe are addicted to standing
still, right? We are addictedto, I love it. I know it's
great, but laying down is nice,but, and you and, I mean, I fall
into this category where I willbe really active for a while,
(01:30):
and then, you know, somethingcomes up, or I'm a little hurt,
and I, you know, as I kind of, Iback off a little bit, and then
I become really sedentary, likeduring the height of of
quarantine, you know, I ended upbuilding a gym in my house
because I was so sedentary. Istarted to have health issues. I
started to gain so much weight.
And I am the kind of personwhere if I can't do a full
(01:52):
workout, I do almost nothing.
I'm the same way. It's like, oh,well, I'll get it tomorrow,
right? But what thisis teaching us is that it does
not take much. You can getbenefits by just getting outside
and going for a 25 minute walk.
Now, it says once a week, but 25minutes a day is, is something
we could all do, and you willget, you know, you'll get
(02:14):
astronomical brain benefits.
It'll deal it'll help you withyour dementia, with your
cognitive decline. It'll helpyou with your cardiovascular
health. So you know, justgetting off the couch, just a
little bit every week is reallyall it takes in order to improve
your health in a meaningful way.
So the researchers were sayingthat the goal of their research
was to see how little exercisewe really needed for better
(02:36):
brain health. Because, and ifyou just said it, very few
people get the recommendedamount, which is 150 minutes a
week, but the effects of 25minutes a week of exercise on
people's brains were real.
Yes. I mean, and again, like Isaid, I'm the kind of person if
I can't do 150 minutes a day, Iskip it all together. And that,
you know, obviously that's,that's, that's not the healthy
(02:57):
move, yeah. Nowfor something completely
different, the truth is thatyour house guests are absolutely
judging you. Of course they are.
So the average, the averageperson takes just 38 seconds to
judge your home. And here arethe three things they will
notice. First, according toresearchers, if you vacuumed, if
(03:18):
your windows are dirty and ifthere's a funny smell in your
house. I always remember we usedto go over to Donnie Holman
house. And I think, I think Momwas mom Holman was love, love
Brussels sprouts. And there'sjust something about the
brussels sprouts smell thatsays, Get me out of here. Yeah,
I don't wantthose. It's a sulfur compound
that sticks in the air. Thereis okay, according to the Wall
(03:39):
Street Journal, we're buyingmore air fresheners, scented
candles, diffusers and stronglyscented cleaners to overcome one
of our deepest social fears.
This would be my mom. Thevisitors will think our home
stinks to high heaven. SoProcter and Gamble did their own
research and found that 74% ofus, Gib are concerned about how
our homes smell. As a result,sales of air fresheners are up
(04:01):
10% while candle sales are upnearly 30% I
mean, have you seen every everyhome store has 1000 candles with
different stent, with differentscents, with like flavors that
everyone like bergamon and andcardamom, all the mom sense And
they it's that they're likespices, and they got, you know,
(04:23):
they have like ocean andlavender and seascape and Forest
Glen and all of these, all ofthese, all these different
scents that are just meant to doexactly what you're talking
about, convince people that weare we're not disgusting in how
we live in our homes. I mean, Icook at my house. I have sweaty,
you know, athlete children. Myhouse always has a little bit of
(04:46):
a pungentness to it. But we gotcandles. We got lots of candles.
Do you remember exactly? I'm notsure if I can tell a story,
because I remember reading. Itwas a fascinating story, the
story about Febreze, yes, yeah.
With you. Can you tell. Thestory. So Febreze was
originally, it's actually, it'sscentless. And what it does is
it bond, it binds to thechemicals that cause odor in the
(05:07):
air and and and takes themliterally, takes the smell out
of the air. So in theory,Febreze would be the absence of
smell. So if you were to spray,it would be the absence of
smell. And they found thatpeople were not buying it, even
though it did exactly what it'ssupposed to do, which is cover
up the scent. And what, whatthey ended up adding was some
(05:30):
some fresh scents to the Febrezespray. And they turned it into
the the ritual of when youfinish cleaning a room, you give
the room a little spritz of roomfragrance in order to, you know,
actually sell Febreze, which iscrazy, because what makes
Febreze so great is that it is,it is no smell. But, you know, I
if it were me, if you know, if Icould go back and do it I want.
(05:54):
I want plain Febreze, and thenI'll add the candle in later
with exactly the smell that Iwant. Yeah.
So the name of the, if you wantto go further, it's a, it's an,
it's a fascinating marketingstudy, apparently. And the story
is called Febreze, the fall andthe rise, a story recreated.
(06:15):
Yes, so there you go.
And you know, basically whatthey had to create was the habit
and the and the impetus to formthe habit of spritzing a room
after you were done, growing itright, right,
right, all right. Let's talkabout, you know, I've noticed
this. I noticed this with withyour, your grandma's boyfriend,
Elliot, you know, when theywere, how old were, how old was
(06:38):
Gigi, when she was dating?
I mean, she was in her late 80s,yeah, and she
was dating Elliot, who was asmart guy, because she he a lot
of people are concerned aboutfalling, but they don't make any
adjustment. He would always sortof shuffle in. Yes, they barely
picked and I thought, I thoughtthat was really cool. Kind
of felt like, like the, like thenerdy kid in the back of the
(06:59):
English class when he came in,you know, he had a style. Yeah,
he's British. He would, we wouldkind of shuffle in, like
unassuming, like a Hugh Granttype, right,
right, exactly, well, but Iremember noticing before I'd
ever seen this story we're aboutto tell you, I remember noticing
that he was always walkingslower than Gigi. And so this is
from Monash University inAustralia, they say, If you
(07:21):
worry, excuse me, if you worrythat you or somebody you love is
at high risk for age relatedcognitive decline, dementia,
Alzheimer's. The early sign isfrom Dr Taya Collier, who
followed 17,000 retirees overseven years, those walking. This
is amazing. Those walking atleast 5% slower than the
(07:44):
previous year were at a superhigh risk for dementia. Dr
Collier believes it's linked toshrinkage in the hippocampus,
the brain area for memory andspatial navigation. The good
news is you can slow age relatedcognitive decline with here we
go again exercise. Thepsychologists from the
University of Pittsburgh hadpeople begin walking 10 minutes
a day, and gradually increasedit to 40 minutes a day. Increase
(08:08):
increase the size of theirhippocampus by up to 2% which
ended up shaving one to twoyears off their Brain Age.
Amazing. This goes back to whatwe were talking about before.
Look. So this is a sign of lowerdecline. Start walking more
often. And here's the greatnews, your wife does not have
dementia. Oh my gosh.
I'm like, a little cheese toofast for me. I'm like, the dog
(08:28):
can't catch her. Yeah?
So everybody that lives in inNew York City is, is going to be
fine, because they walk right?
Well, if you don't walk, you gettrampled, right? If you don't
walk in faster speed.
So, but, but look again. Youknow, use the walking as a sign
that you are, that it's startingto happen even before you start
(08:49):
to realize it. Because everybodyforgets stuff. When they walk
into a room or they they leavethe house, they go, Oh, I forgot
to bring the thing that I said Iwas gonna bring. Yada yada yada.
It happens to everybody. Yeah,but if you notice these little
signs of not lifting your feetcompletely, of walking slowly
because your brain can't processthe spatial information quickly
enough to be able to walk atpace. Then you need to start
(09:09):
doing things. And the number onething you can do is exercise,
both exercising your brain bydoing stimulating puzzles and
things like that, learning a newlanguage, learning a new skill,
all of those things are helpful,but also just literally exercise
again, we are so sedentary as aspecies right now. I mean, at
least in the North Americanculture, where we are, we are
just slowly but surely killingourselves. This is why they say
(09:30):
sitting is the new smoking.
Because when you're not doingjust even a little bit of
moderate exercise, 10 minutes aday, 25 minutes a week, these
small amounts, you are allowingyourself to slowly deteriorate
from the inside. And this isjust the worst way to find out
about it, which is, you'relosing your brain.
You know, who does this, theexercise snacking, as we say, is
(09:51):
Ashton Kutcher, the actor, andalso Tim Ferriss, the author of
The Four Hour Work Week and theFour Hour Body and all that
stuff. They're just always like,they'll. Know, I've seen you do
this when you do planks, butthey'll do so like they'll do
bear crawls and stuff like that.
The thing is that you and I are,you know, a buck and a half
heavier than 200 pounds. Yeah,and and, well, up, well, taller
(10:12):
than six feet tall. And so ittakes me a while to get wound
up. By the time I get theflywheel going, my wife is, is
already in the store and goneout the back end. You know, you
take, she's like trying to, it'slike, for me, it's like trying
to chase Jason Bourne, youknow, so many metaphors to
(10:33):
unpack there. Here's my adviceto you, stride. Take bigger
strides. Right out of the get gothat way. You'll, stay that way.
Your wife will take three stepsto fear everyone.
But I'm afraid I'm gonna throw arod. You know, I gotta worry
about my Achilles. Now, youknow, all these people are
snapping their Achilles, playingplaying pickleball. Another
(10:54):
friend who did that? Did youreally? Yeah, yeah, well, I
didn't. And what's her name? Afriend. Your last name, Connie's
friend, Michelle's mother, yeah,just snapped her Achilles. She's
80 years old, and old enoughwhere they the doctor said, now
I'm not fixing this. I'm like,why wait? What? Yeah, she had
(11:15):
some complications, you know,okay, but, but, yeah, how do we
get on Achilles? We got becauseof me, yeah, because I gotta, I
need to, need a slower start. Itwas like, well, look how long
your legs are, yeah? But it justtake, takes a while to unfold
the darn things,yeah, yeah. You have to get it.
Getting to pace is difficult. Iget it,
I know, but I still, I stillcan't. And even this is my whole
(11:35):
life as a kid, my dad used totake me once a month into work
in Manhattan with him, and I'mrunning at full speed trying to
keep up with him. Yeah, yeah.
Well, he didn't get dementia.
No, he's smoking all day long,six pack of cigarettes a day.
But the dementia didn't getexactly,
exactly. People aren't smokinganymore, and their dementia is
(11:56):
getting them.
Dr John, Dr Gib, the doctors arein. Okay, let's talk about your
brain. I think we just did. Butif you want to come up with new
ideas or solutions, but you'refeeling mentally tapped out and
uninspired, this is actually thethis. I think we're finding that
this is the solution toeverything, including a hit
television show or YouTubechannel, eat something spicy. Oh
(12:16):
yeah. So now this comes from thebook breakthrough, proven
strategies to overcome creativeblocks and spark your
imagination was written by AlexCornell. Listen to this in a
recent survey of creativeleaders, Cornell found that
nothing sparks new ideas likeeating spicy food. Why would
this happen? He says, Whatclears the head, literally, by
draining the sinuses, especiallythe ones that that you eat, the
(12:38):
ghost peppers. But spicy foodalso increases blood flow by
relaxing your arteries, so moreoxygen rich blood starts flowing
to your brain, giving you moreenergy and hopefully fresh
ideas. You know? The other thingabout spicy food, we've talked
about this on the radio showbefore, is that it really it
amps up your immune systembecause your your body thinks it
needs to attack it,right? Yeah, so spicy food is
(12:59):
this is this brings up, youknow, a point that we talk about
on every one of our shows andand that is acute stress versus
chronic stress. So, so chronicstress is the worry and
relationship problems and andfinancial issues and all of that
stuff. It's the stuff that youthat you carry with you, and it
interrupts your sleep, and itmakes it increases your cortisol
(13:21):
levels that you you know, youhave a harder time metabolizing
fat. That's all chronic stress.
When we talk about de stressing,that's what we're talking about
removing. But acute stress isthe stuff that's really good for
you, which distinguishes the twois the acute stress is something
that has an immediate stressorthat you then take away, and
(13:41):
your body is able to tocompensate for that immediate
stressor. So that is exercise,right? You do a sprint on the
treadmill, and then you stopsprinting, your body gets back
to its baseline when you dothat, and as a result, your your
whole body actually becomes morerelaxed when you take away that
stressor. The same thing is trueof cold water therapy. So
(14:05):
getting taking a cold shower,doing cryo all of that stuff.
And of course, we talk aboutthis all the time, spicy food is
yet another example of an acutestressor. So you take on the
stress your body registers thespicy food as literal pain, and
then that pain as it goes away,as your body processes it, all
(14:25):
of the things that come withstress in the good way start to
happen. You get an immune boost.
You get a blood flow boost. Allof these things start to occur.
Your energy goes up. You getinto the fight or flight or
flee. Fight flee, or freeze.
That's you get into that, intothat zone where you're, you
(14:46):
know, and then, and then youcome out of it. And all that
does is it makes your bodyhealthier and more adaptive to
actual stress. And as a result,your brain gets fired up. So it
makes sense, this is the samething. It's. Similar to, you
know, people like Steve Jobs,who, when they get stuck, they
go for a walk. It's exactly thesame thing again.
The book, if you want to godeeper, is breakthrough, proven
(15:07):
strategies to overcome creativeblocks and spark your
imagination. It's about usingspicy food to be more creative.
I feel like I'm a I feel like Ineed to get a side hustle. I
know a lot of these people thatlisten to the radio show are
like, Hey, John, every time wedo a side hustle thing, whether
it's wrapping your car in anadvertisement, or renting out
(15:30):
your furniture or renting outyour pool, we get a lot of
response. And so I thought maybeI should get a side hustle. So I
looked this up, and these arethe careers that pay very well,
but they don't require a collegedegree. So on top of that, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics saysthese careers are growing right
now. Now, I could absolutely dothis first one, part time. I
(15:51):
could just take care of a coupleof buildings close to us, in
Beverly Hills, elevator andescalator installation and
repair. Are therea lot of broken ones around you
is that, why is what you'reimplying?
I think that there's probablythere. There's the people who
fix them are so good, yeah, thatthey never break. I mean, they
never Yeah, right there. Younever get wrong every now and
(16:12):
then. Yeah. Who's there? Who'sthe guy that Mitch Hedberg,
yeah, an escalator can bebroken. It can only become
stairs. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Sopeople who can install and fix
elevators and escalators are indemand, and it's a sick six
figure job. So if I got anothersix figure job, I mean, I could,
I could buy Christmas presents,right? Go in there and fix a
couple of elevators. I don't theescalators puzzling to me, but I
think I could fix the elevator,because I've seen it in so many
(16:34):
of those Mission Impossiblemovies. People interested in
this job will need a license.
I don't know how you're gettingthe license.
I love this. My driver's licenseeven just expired. You know, you
know, I'm 72 you know this, mydriver's license expired. So I
set the thing in. I said, herewe go, renew it. You go, nope.
(16:55):
You gotta come in and take thattest again. What? How that's
like that? That's the definitionof I'm going to drown myself in
the pool. This is where I stillthink I'm 40 years old. That's
why I don't look in mirrorsanymore. I think, Okay, I'm 40.
But then you get the thing inthe mail that says,
Yeah, you're gonna have to comein. I
cannot wait. Look, this would befull circle if I have to drive
(17:19):
you to your driving test becauseyou told me to my driving test
when I turned 16. So I would, Iwould relish the opportunity to
drive you to your drivingtest. People interested in this
job well the license and canenroll in union apprenticeship
programs to learn the necessaryskills you follow.
Apprenticeships are great, manyou follow, God follow around
the elevator. Guy teaches youwhat to do, and what's the worst
(17:41):
that can happen? Mean, you getstuck, everybody, everybody's
worst nightmares, what canhappen, and you, you forget to
tighten down a couple of bolts,and in the middle of the night,
you're like, Oh no,I gotta go back.
I see some horror movies. I canshow you if you want to know
what the worstthat could happen. Oh, thanks.
Would they fall on a spike orsomething?
(18:04):
No, theyget like, yeah, the average
median salary for these workersis $102,000 a year. Now this is
important, because I don't thinkConnie can do this. I'm not sure
how you feel about it. I don'thave claustrophobia, because
I've been in so many MRImachines. By the way, I have so
much experience in the MRImachine, it can't be any
different than the elevator. Soanyway, anyway, it's very
(18:26):
different. But go ahead, youneed to be okay with, first of
all, you need a license. I lovethat. You need to be okay with
being in cramped areas, crawlspaces and machine rooms. You
may also be at heights inelevator shafts.
I mean, there's so many reasonswhy. That's why the pay is so
high. This is every John Wickfilm, yeah, every time you see,
(18:48):
like, in Mission Impossible orJohn Wick, they sneak into the
elevator shaft, yeah,yeah. Guy rides on top, yeah.
You know that's like in takenthree. I watch too many of
these. You really do. It'sunbelievable. Taken three,
because he rides on top of theelevator shaft, and then he gets
the Russian okay, there'sanything wrong with Russians?
Let'sjust circle back real fast the
actual job we're talking about.
Okay, sorry. I think the issuefor me, I can't handle the close
(19:10):
faces. And for you, I thinkyou're too big to get your arms
into the places you have torepair. I think you're too
large. I think we need to findyou something else. I
remember when I was an ROTC atNorth Carolina State. First of
all, I didn't want to cut myhair. I had very long hair, but
I wanted my dad wanted me to go,because he was in navy, and so
I'm there. And I remember one ofthe guys, that was Steve Thomas,
(19:32):
that was in there with me. Andwhy do I want to win this?
Because, well, you don't, youknow if they're gonna send you
to Vietnam. You want to be acaptain or whatever. And I said,
Oh, okay. And then he said, plusyou're really big and they won't
send you in those tunnels. Thatwas like a big selling point for
me, speaking. So I'm sounbelievable. Okay, so I'm gonna
(19:54):
cross out the elevator thing,yeah, the next one, Always Look
on the Bright Side of Life.
Steve Thomas, thankyou for that. Let's. Just,
I know he always came up withthose ideas. What's the worst
that could happen? All right,another good paying job that
does not require a degree issubway and streetcar operators.
Wow, I think I could do thiseasily. Do you need a license?
(20:15):
The workforce needs people whocan operate subways and trains,
and it pays about $84,000 ayear. You only need up to a year
of on the job training.
I mean, yeah, we gotta, wegotta. You need the people that
look just don't look at yourphone. Like the guy on the train
that I used to take to work, hewas looking at his phone and the
train derailed. So, yeah, youjust gotta be, you gotta be
(20:36):
focused. And if you do it, well,nobody ever notices you. I it's
a great job. What great job? Howmany street cars are? There
is a few towns that have streetcars. A lot of malls have street
cars. Now, those outdoor mallspaces and, you know, like any
above ground subway, but groundtrain, and they call it a street
car. I wonder if they I wonderif I'm here. I
wonder if they check. I mean, ofcourse, I've taken a million
(20:58):
subways because I grew up in NewYork. But I wonder if, when you,
when you, when you audition tobe the subway operator, I wonder
if they check out your voice,because everybody seems,
everybody's got that voice.
That's the old New York version.
(21:19):
It's all automated. They have avoice over our that's terrible.
You should that's a that's ajob. Speaking of auditioning,
that's the job you shouldaudition for, is to be the voice
of the next stop, La CienegaBoulevard. No. It never
comes off like that. That's thetrain at the airport, and the
subway is likenow. They have the professionals
do it. It's not the guy in thecar anymore. I
(21:42):
was really bummed out. We justgot back from Italy a little
while ago, and I was reallybummed that I when I found out
that when it one of the churchbells, you know, back there in
the Vatican, it was a recordinglike, what? Yeah. What are you
doing?
Well, because the actual Bellis, like a historical relic
asked by Michelangelo, ring it,yeah? Like,
somebody tell the Pope. Allright.
(22:04):
Oh, this will be fun. You guyswill this will be a conversation
starter for you. Let's look back100 years ago. This is called,
we need some music, but I don'thave it right now. Here it is.
Thank you. What? What adifference a century makes. So
Gib, approximately 100 yearsago. You know where I'm going
here, indoor plumbing was not aregular part of new home
construction until 1900 and thenit was, excuse me, and then it
(22:28):
was mainly for wealthy people,sure. So even in the 1920s fewer
than half of us homes had indoorplumbing. It wasn't until 1930
that it became standard. When Iwas at my grandpa's house in
rural North Carolina, thatthere's no difference without
house.
Yeah. I mean, you know, it's akeep in mind, not only did you
have to pay, and now you know,you can't have a house without
(22:49):
plumbing, but not only did youhave to pay to have the fixtures
put into your house and thepipes in your house, but they
also it took a long time forthem to run the pipes for for
everything, you know, the indoorplumbing, it took some time so
it when you have something thatworks, and I imagine, I imagine,
your grandparents in NorthCarolina were like, well, we
(23:11):
have the well, and we have theouthouse. I'm not spending what
it takes to do all this. No,thank you. I don't need it. And
now, and now it's, you know, nowit's, it's changed. Fundamental.
They spent all their money oncigarettes
and Dr peppers. Those were like,those were free back then,
my grandparents never spoke tome. My grandparents, on the side
(23:33):
of the farm was just like, justgrunts, yeah, and that meant, go
slap the hall. They just pointedat the chicken they wanted you
to kill. Well, no, yeah. I mean,my grandma taught me how to kill
the chicken. That's that's not athat's not cool. I have
nightmares about that, you know?
I mean, it's not like thechickens going along for a ride.
It's a chicken. It resiststaking it to the vet. Yeah, I'm
(23:54):
eating tofu. Okay. Well, listen,you know, I remember this now,
this is in 1920 but I rememberthis vividly in the 1950s and
early 60s, when you had to,like, really, you had to save up
for a long distance phone call.
Yeah. So in 1920 for example, a10 minute call between LA and
New York was 26 bucks, yeah, theequivalent of $250 now, yeah.
(24:19):
I mean, I remember when that wasa was a really big deal where a
phone call was super expensive.
And now, you know, I don't knowof a phone plan. Now, you had to
plan your plan. I don't know ofa phone call if you're dating
somebody you don't have anymoney, yeah. I mean, now I don't
know of a phone of a phone planthat doesn't have unlimited
minutes attached to it, right? Imean, so keep in mind, we had,
you have the long distance phonecall being super expensive for
(24:42):
four years and then, and then,remember, when they would have,
you'd have unlimited talk andtext after a certain time of
day, yeah, so then, so everybodywould start calling you, like,
after 7pm to start having phonecalls, if you like. I remember
this in like. In college, you'dwait till after a certain point
to start calling the girl thatyou were trying to date, because
(25:03):
that was the time when you couldget the free phone call. That's
right. And now it's like, now Ihate using my phone, but I
cannot imagine them charging meto do that. It's all about the
data. Now, yeah,yeah. 100 years ago, most births
took place at home. Yeah,yeah, for better, for worse. I
mean, I know I have some friendswho've had home births, and I
(25:26):
know some people who have hadhome births and loved it. I know
some people who've tried forhome births and had to end up at
a hospital. But I mean, my, youknow, my mother in law is a
labor and delivery nurse, andshe did, I think, two births at
home, and then sold the couchshe gave birth on. So if you're
sitting on the couch out thereright now, it could be one that
my mother in law gave birth onat home,
(25:48):
like they did 100 years ago.
Gosh, thanksfor the detail. You're welcome
a couple of more here. 100 yearsago, a nice, good sized home
cost about $6,300 unbelievable.
If you had, if you got anapartment in Manhattan, the rent
was $60 a month. Can youimagine? You can't,
I mean, you a parking space is,is $6,300 a month now, yeah, 60
(26:09):
bucks a month for for rent.
That's what I that's what I didwhen I went to when I took my
first job in Manhattan, is Iimmediately sold my car because
I just I couldn't afford to keepit. Yeah, and then finally, and
I actually remember this since Iwas born in 52 radio, 100 years
ago and beyond, was the mainform of home entertainment.
Yeah, television was three yearsaway from being demonstrated.
(26:31):
And we say demonstrated, you hadto. You'd go into a store and
they would demonstrate thetelevision, because people were
like, do I want this in my home?
Yeah, is this? Is this thedevil?
Also, they didn't. They had toshow you what the programming
looked like, because youcouldn't fathom what it would
actually be. You didn't have theidea of a screen Exactly.
(26:55):
How does it get in there, right?
That was a big question. Yeah.
I mean, radio is still a greatform of entertainment. We got
radios and podcasts, and the oldradio drama is alive and well
now. So you know, the the oldwireless, the sitting around the
wireless in the living room?
Yep, it has come back in someways, especially on road trips.
We'll listen to these radiodramas in podcast form when we
(27:16):
go on road trips as a family,because they're engaging in the
same way that the wireless usedto be 100 years ago. So I love,
I'm not sure if it was like thisin every household, but when,
when they when NBC with thepeacock, when they came out and
they said, Okay, now, nowthere's the color TV. I remember
my dad, John senior, saying,What, very nice. I forgot to
(27:38):
nothing. My My father was like,You know what? Why do we need
that? I don't need to. I mean,I'm watching, watching the, you
know, watch Cronkite, and I'mwatching the honeymooners. And
why do I need color? Why isthat, you know? Yeah,
yeah. And then, and then, slowlybut surely, I remember, with HD,
(27:59):
I had a cathode ray tube TV forthe longest time before HD took
off and everybody had flatscreen TVs and stuff. I was
like, Yeah, I like this. This isa good enough
TV. The thing is, in suburbia isthat, you know, back on Seabury
road on Long Island, in the 50s,it was all about a couple of
things. One is your yard andyour garden. And if you, if you
(28:23):
had weeds and stuff in there, Imean, you were just like on all
people wouldn't come over yourhouse. You couldn't, you
couldn't hang out with theiryour friends over there, because
it would look like the Adamsfamily house. And then when,
when aluminum siding becameavailable, that was a, that was
it. That was a stature thing,yeah, where you even have that?
(28:43):
Now,no, I don't think they go into I
mean, I'm sure you can getaluminum, take aluminum
things, and you just put it onyour house. And they thought,
Oh, this is great, because whathappens is, it protects you from
the heat. Now, what they forgotto tell you,
and it doesn't, it doesn't erodein the same right? Exactly,
exactly, except. But then yougot, everybody's got a house
(29:04):
made out of aluminum, yeah, butif you
live in tornado country, you gota house made out of switch
plates.
That's the thing with thealuminum that you got to worry
about, is that switch boy, itjust it, just it cuts.
Yeah, you're right.
But what would happen is, theydidn't tell you this, right?
Because they the whole idea was,you get a white you'll get black
(29:26):
aluminum, you know, yeah, soit's reflective, right? But it
does absorb a lot of heat. Andso what would happen to me, as,
like, a six year old, as I'd bein my bed, and, you know, it
would be, I don't know, eighto'clock at night, unless they
start hearing, are you thinkingsomebody's get coming into the
(29:48):
house? Aluminum cooling down?
Yes, yeah. And then my dad, hedidn't want to get air
conditioning, so he got likethis. He was very handy. And so
we had with, you know, a twostory, small house. And with an
attic. So he installed a anexhaust fan in there. I've told
you this story before, and itbut it wasn't like an exhaust
fan, like you see in the in thein the bathroom when you're, you
(30:10):
know, restaurants. This was afull on propeller for a King Air
350 I mean, this thing, thepropeller was like, What in the
hell? And it had, it had louverson it. So if you flipped, if my
dad at six or seven o'clock atnight, right, he would flip,
flip the switch, and the thingwould start sucking air from the
(30:32):
house into the attic, and thelouvers would open up like that.
And if you had a window open, orif you had a door open, or
something like that, you wouldlose an arm, because it was like
Poltergeist, where thepoltergeist is just shutting all
the doors to show off. That'swhat that thing was. And it was
(30:53):
in your hair would be like inyour face, because if you'd be
and if you had friends over, youknow, if they freaked out, if
your friends were like, youknow, had had had low aphrodis
weight, whatever they call it,if they were light, they had a
see, their feet were a littlejust off the floor. No, I'm
serious, but somebody out thereis listening this, and they're
(31:13):
going, Okay, we had one of thosethings too. I mean, imagine
being, you know, at an airport,and you walk to the back of the
plane, and you start gettingsucked towards the propeller.
That's what it was in mybedroom. We I think we've
processed some trauma today, andI'm glad that really try
was pretty cool, because what wewould do is we take we had army
(31:34):
men, like your son does now, andwe line them all up, and then
they would just get sucked outthe door. That's like,
well, you know what? We'll diveinto that. Not interesting.
We'll dive into that nextweek. Thanks. That's all we got,
even if it wasn't all we got.
Gib,I don't know, I don't know where
to go with the Army gettingsucked out of your house. Okay,
(31:55):
let's talk about productivity.
No,I think we're done. All right.
We appreciate you listening topodcast, and the audience is
growing, if you know that.
But it is, yeah, they all theywant to hear about is the
propeller fan destroying yourarmy
man. When you get old enough,you've got these stories. You
know, if you're like, how didyou even survive? You know, it's
time for me to write anotherbook. It is, it is, and I'm
(32:17):
going to call the book mysisters tried to flush me down
the toilet, which is a truestory. Yeah, okay, anyway,
thanks for joining the podcast.
I'm John Tesch Gib Gerard.
Gerard, we are out. You.
Welcome to the podcast John Tesh with Gib Gerard got
some great stuff for you today.
Let's talk about exercise andbrain health. Oh yeah. So here's
the question, Gib, what is theminimum amount of exercise that
we need for better brain health?
They now know, apparently,according to a study from
Washington University School ofMedicine in St Louis, it is 25
(00:26):
minutes a week. That's it lessthan four minutes a day, and it
could help, of course, you haveto run a mile in four minutes.
No, just kidding, it's they say,it could help, quote, bulk up
your brain and improve yourability to think as you grow
older. It's 25 minutes a week.
This according again, to thatstudy at Washington University,
they scanned the brains of morethan 10,000 healthy men and
women from ages 18 to 97 that isa massive study. They found that
(00:48):
those who walked, swam, cycled,or did any kind of moderate
workout for 25 minutes a weekdid have bigger brains than
those who didn't, no mattertheir ages, and bigger brains,
of course, typically meanhealthier brains. The
differences were most pronouncedin parts of the brain involved
with thinking and memory, whichshrink as we age and contribute
to cognitive decline anddementia. Are that many people
(01:09):
doing less than 25 minutes.
That's that's the real takeawaythat I have from this, which is,
you know, it doesn't we, we havewe are addicted to standing
still, right? We are addictedto, I love it. I know it's
great, but laying down is nice,but, and you and, I mean, I fall
into this category where I willbe really active for a while,
(01:30):
and then, you know, somethingcomes up, or I'm a little hurt,
and I, you know, as I kind of, Iback off a little bit, and then
I become really sedentary, likeduring the height of of
quarantine, you know, I ended upbuilding a gym in my house
because I was so sedentary. Istarted to have health issues. I
started to gain so much weight.
And I am the kind of personwhere if I can't do a full
(01:52):
workout, I do almost nothing.
I'm the same way. It's like, oh,well, I'll get it tomorrow,
right? But what thisis teaching us is that it does
not take much. You can getbenefits by just getting outside
and going for a 25 minute walk.
Now, it says once a week, but 25minutes a day is, is something
we could all do, and you willget, you know, you'll get
(02:14):
astronomical brain benefits.
It'll deal it'll help you withyour dementia, with your
cognitive decline. It'll helpyou with your cardiovascular
health. So you know, justgetting off the couch, just a
little bit every week is reallyall it takes in order to improve
your health in a meaningful way.
So the researchers were sayingthat the goal of their research
was to see how little exercisewe really needed for better
(02:36):
brain health. Because, and ifyou just said it, very few
people get the recommendedamount, which is 150 minutes a
week, but the effects of 25minutes a week of exercise on
people's brains were real.
Yes. I mean, and again, like Isaid, I'm the kind of person if
I can't do 150 minutes a day, Iskip it all together. And that,
you know, obviously that's,that's, that's not the healthy
(02:57):
move, yeah. Nowfor something completely
different, the truth is thatyour house guests are absolutely
judging you. Of course they are.
So the average, the averageperson takes just 38 seconds to
judge your home. And here arethe three things they will
notice. First, according toresearchers, if you vacuumed, if
(03:18):
your windows are dirty and ifthere's a funny smell in your
house. I always remember we usedto go over to Donnie Holman
house. And I think, I think Momwas mom Holman was love, love
Brussels sprouts. And there'sjust something about the
brussels sprouts smell thatsays, Get me out of here. Yeah,
I don't wantthose. It's a sulfur compound
that sticks in the air. Thereis okay, according to the Wall
(03:39):
Street Journal, we're buyingmore air fresheners, scented
candles, diffusers and stronglyscented cleaners to overcome one
of our deepest social fears.
This would be my mom. Thevisitors will think our home
stinks to high heaven. SoProcter and Gamble did their own
research and found that 74% ofus, Gib are concerned about how
our homes smell. As a result,sales of air fresheners are up
(04:01):
10% while candle sales are upnearly 30% I
mean, have you seen every everyhome store has 1000 candles with
different stent, with differentscents, with like flavors that
everyone like bergamon and andcardamom, all the mom sense And
they it's that they're likespices, and they got, you know,
(04:23):
they have like ocean andlavender and seascape and Forest
Glen and all of these, all ofthese, all these different
scents that are just meant to doexactly what you're talking
about, convince people that weare we're not disgusting in how
we live in our homes. I mean, Icook at my house. I have sweaty,
you know, athlete children. Myhouse always has a little bit of
(04:46):
a pungentness to it. But we gotcandles. We got lots of candles.
Do you remember exactly? I'm notsure if I can tell a story,
because I remember reading. Itwas a fascinating story, the
story about Febreze, yes, yeah.
With you. Can you tell. Thestory. So Febreze was
originally, it's actually, it'sscentless. And what it does is
it bond, it binds to thechemicals that cause odor in the
(05:07):
air and and and takes themliterally, takes the smell out
of the air. So in theory,Febreze would be the absence of
smell. So if you were to spray,it would be the absence of
smell. And they found thatpeople were not buying it, even
though it did exactly what it'ssupposed to do, which is cover
up the scent. And what, whatthey ended up adding was some
(05:30):
some fresh scents to the Febrezespray. And they turned it into
the the ritual of when youfinish cleaning a room, you give
the room a little spritz of roomfragrance in order to, you know,
actually sell Febreze, which iscrazy, because what makes
Febreze so great is that it is,it is no smell. But, you know, I
if it were me, if you know, if Icould go back and do it I want.
(05:54):
I want plain Febreze, and thenI'll add the candle in later
with exactly the smell that Iwant. Yeah.
So the name of the, if you wantto go further, it's a, it's an,
it's a fascinating marketingstudy, apparently. And the story
is called Febreze, the fall andthe rise, a story recreated.
(06:15):
Yes, so there you go.
And you know, basically whatthey had to create was the habit
and the and the impetus to formthe habit of spritzing a room
after you were done, growing itright, right,
right, all right. Let's talkabout, you know, I've noticed
this. I noticed this with withyour, your grandma's boyfriend,
Elliot, you know, when theywere, how old were, how old was
(06:38):
Gigi, when she was dating?
I mean, she was in her late 80s,yeah, and she
was dating Elliot, who was asmart guy, because she he a lot
of people are concerned aboutfalling, but they don't make any
adjustment. He would always sortof shuffle in. Yes, they barely
picked and I thought, I thoughtthat was really cool. Kind
of felt like, like the, like thenerdy kid in the back of the
(06:59):
English class when he came in,you know, he had a style. Yeah,
he's British. He would, we wouldkind of shuffle in, like
unassuming, like a Hugh Granttype, right,
right, exactly, well, but Iremember noticing before I'd
ever seen this story we're aboutto tell you, I remember noticing
that he was always walkingslower than Gigi. And so this is
from Monash University inAustralia, they say, If you
(07:21):
worry, excuse me, if you worrythat you or somebody you love is
at high risk for age relatedcognitive decline, dementia,
Alzheimer's. The early sign isfrom Dr Taya Collier, who
followed 17,000 retirees overseven years, those walking. This
is amazing. Those walking atleast 5% slower than the
(07:44):
previous year were at a superhigh risk for dementia. Dr
Collier believes it's linked toshrinkage in the hippocampus,
the brain area for memory andspatial navigation. The good
news is you can slow age relatedcognitive decline with here we
go again exercise. Thepsychologists from the
University of Pittsburgh hadpeople begin walking 10 minutes
a day, and gradually increasedit to 40 minutes a day. Increase
(08:08):
increase the size of theirhippocampus by up to 2% which
ended up shaving one to twoyears off their Brain Age.
Amazing. This goes back to whatwe were talking about before.
Look. So this is a sign of lowerdecline. Start walking more
often. And here's the greatnews, your wife does not have
dementia. Oh my gosh.
I'm like, a little cheese toofast for me. I'm like, the dog
(08:28):
can't catch her. Yeah?
So everybody that lives in inNew York City is, is going to be
fine, because they walk right?
Well, if you don't walk, you gettrampled, right? If you don't
walk in faster speed.
So, but, but look again. Youknow, use the walking as a sign
that you are, that it's startingto happen even before you start
(08:49):
to realize it. Because everybodyforgets stuff. When they walk
into a room or they they leavethe house, they go, Oh, I forgot
to bring the thing that I said Iwas gonna bring. Yada yada yada.
It happens to everybody. Yeah,but if you notice these little
signs of not lifting your feetcompletely, of walking slowly
because your brain can't processthe spatial information quickly
enough to be able to walk atpace. Then you need to start
(09:09):
doing things. And the number onething you can do is exercise,
both exercising your brain bydoing stimulating puzzles and
things like that, learning a newlanguage, learning a new skill,
all of those things are helpful,but also just literally exercise
again, we are so sedentary as aspecies right now. I mean, at
least in the North Americanculture, where we are, we are
just slowly but surely killingourselves. This is why they say
(09:30):
sitting is the new smoking.
Because when you're not doingjust even a little bit of
moderate exercise, 10 minutes aday, 25 minutes a week, these
small amounts, you are allowingyourself to slowly deteriorate
from the inside. And this isjust the worst way to find out
about it, which is, you'relosing your brain.
You know, who does this, theexercise snacking, as we say, is
(09:51):
Ashton Kutcher, the actor, andalso Tim Ferriss, the author of
The Four Hour Work Week and theFour Hour Body and all that
stuff. They're just always like,they'll. Know, I've seen you do
this when you do planks, butthey'll do so like they'll do
bear crawls and stuff like that.
The thing is that you and I are,you know, a buck and a half
heavier than 200 pounds. Yeah,and and, well, up, well, taller
(10:12):
than six feet tall. And so ittakes me a while to get wound
up. By the time I get theflywheel going, my wife is, is
already in the store and goneout the back end. You know, you
take, she's like trying to, it'slike, for me, it's like trying
to chase Jason Bourne, youknow, so many metaphors to
(10:33):
unpack there. Here's my adviceto you, stride. Take bigger
strides. Right out of the get gothat way. You'll, stay that way.
Your wife will take three stepsto fear everyone.
But I'm afraid I'm gonna throw arod. You know, I gotta worry
about my Achilles. Now, youknow, all these people are
snapping their Achilles, playingplaying pickleball. Another
(10:54):
friend who did that? Did youreally? Yeah, yeah, well, I
didn't. And what's her name? Afriend. Your last name, Connie's
friend, Michelle's mother, yeah,just snapped her Achilles. She's
80 years old, and old enoughwhere they the doctor said, now
I'm not fixing this. I'm like,why wait? What? Yeah, she had
(11:15):
some complications, you know,okay, but, but, yeah, how do we
get on Achilles? We got becauseof me, yeah, because I gotta, I
need to, need a slower start. Itwas like, well, look how long
your legs are, yeah? But it justtake, takes a while to unfold
the darn things,yeah, yeah. You have to get it.
Getting to pace is difficult. Iget it,
I know, but I still, I stillcan't. And even this is my whole
(11:35):
life as a kid, my dad used totake me once a month into work
in Manhattan with him, and I'mrunning at full speed trying to
keep up with him. Yeah, yeah.
Well, he didn't get dementia.
No, he's smoking all day long,six pack of cigarettes a day.
But the dementia didn't getexactly,
exactly. People aren't smokinganymore, and their dementia is
(11:56):
getting them.
Dr John, Dr Gib, the doctors arein. Okay, let's talk about your
brain. I think we just did. Butif you want to come up with new
ideas or solutions, but you'refeeling mentally tapped out and
uninspired, this is actually thethis. I think we're finding that
this is the solution toeverything, including a hit
television show or YouTubechannel, eat something spicy. Oh
(12:16):
yeah. So now this comes from thebook breakthrough, proven
strategies to overcome creativeblocks and spark your
imagination was written by AlexCornell. Listen to this in a
recent survey of creativeleaders, Cornell found that
nothing sparks new ideas likeeating spicy food. Why would
this happen? He says, Whatclears the head, literally, by
draining the sinuses, especiallythe ones that that you eat, the
(12:38):
ghost peppers. But spicy foodalso increases blood flow by
relaxing your arteries, so moreoxygen rich blood starts flowing
to your brain, giving you moreenergy and hopefully fresh
ideas. You know? The other thingabout spicy food, we've talked
about this on the radio showbefore, is that it really it
amps up your immune systembecause your your body thinks it
needs to attack it,right? Yeah, so spicy food is
(12:59):
this is this brings up, youknow, a point that we talk about
on every one of our shows andand that is acute stress versus
chronic stress. So, so chronicstress is the worry and
relationship problems and andfinancial issues and all of that
stuff. It's the stuff that youthat you carry with you, and it
interrupts your sleep, and itmakes it increases your cortisol
(13:21):
levels that you you know, youhave a harder time metabolizing
fat. That's all chronic stress.
When we talk about de stressing,that's what we're talking about
removing. But acute stress isthe stuff that's really good for
you, which distinguishes the twois the acute stress is something
that has an immediate stressorthat you then take away, and
(13:41):
your body is able to tocompensate for that immediate
stressor. So that is exercise,right? You do a sprint on the
treadmill, and then you stopsprinting, your body gets back
to its baseline when you dothat, and as a result, your your
whole body actually becomes morerelaxed when you take away that
stressor. The same thing is trueof cold water therapy. So
(14:05):
getting taking a cold shower,doing cryo all of that stuff.
And of course, we talk aboutthis all the time, spicy food is
yet another example of an acutestressor. So you take on the
stress your body registers thespicy food as literal pain, and
then that pain as it goes away,as your body processes it, all
(14:25):
of the things that come withstress in the good way start to
happen. You get an immune boost.
You get a blood flow boost. Allof these things start to occur.
Your energy goes up. You getinto the fight or flight or
flee. Fight flee, or freeze.
That's you get into that, intothat zone where you're, you
(14:46):
know, and then, and then youcome out of it. And all that
does is it makes your bodyhealthier and more adaptive to
actual stress. And as a result,your brain gets fired up. So it
makes sense, this is the samething. It's. Similar to, you
know, people like Steve Jobs,who, when they get stuck, they
go for a walk. It's exactly thesame thing again.
The book, if you want to godeeper, is breakthrough, proven
(15:07):
strategies to overcome creativeblocks and spark your
imagination. It's about usingspicy food to be more creative.
I feel like I'm a I feel like Ineed to get a side hustle. I
know a lot of these people thatlisten to the radio show are
like, Hey, John, every time wedo a side hustle thing, whether
it's wrapping your car in anadvertisement, or renting out
(15:30):
your furniture or renting outyour pool, we get a lot of
response. And so I thought maybeI should get a side hustle. So I
looked this up, and these arethe careers that pay very well,
but they don't require a collegedegree. So on top of that, the
Bureau of Labor Statistics saysthese careers are growing right
now. Now, I could absolutely dothis first one, part time. I
(15:51):
could just take care of a coupleof buildings close to us, in
Beverly Hills, elevator andescalator installation and
repair. Are therea lot of broken ones around you
is that, why is what you'reimplying?
I think that there's probablythere. There's the people who
fix them are so good, yeah, thatthey never break. I mean, they
never Yeah, right there. Younever get wrong every now and
(16:12):
then. Yeah. Who's there? Who'sthe guy that Mitch Hedberg,
yeah, an escalator can bebroken. It can only become
stairs. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Sopeople who can install and fix
elevators and escalators are indemand, and it's a sick six
figure job. So if I got anothersix figure job, I mean, I could,
I could buy Christmas presents,right? Go in there and fix a
couple of elevators. I don't theescalators puzzling to me, but I
think I could fix the elevator,because I've seen it in so many
(16:34):
of those Mission Impossiblemovies. People interested in
this job will need a license.
I don't know how you're gettingthe license.
I love this. My driver's licenseeven just expired. You know, you
know, I'm 72 you know this, mydriver's license expired. So I
set the thing in. I said, herewe go, renew it. You go, nope.
(16:55):
You gotta come in and take thattest again. What? How that's
like that? That's the definitionof I'm going to drown myself in
the pool. This is where I stillthink I'm 40 years old. That's
why I don't look in mirrorsanymore. I think, Okay, I'm 40.
But then you get the thing inthe mail that says,
Yeah, you're gonna have to comein. I
cannot wait. Look, this would befull circle if I have to drive
(17:19):
you to your driving test becauseyou told me to my driving test
when I turned 16. So I would, Iwould relish the opportunity to
drive you to your drivingtest. People interested in this
job well the license and canenroll in union apprenticeship
programs to learn the necessaryskills you follow.
Apprenticeships are great, manyou follow, God follow around
the elevator. Guy teaches youwhat to do, and what's the worst
(17:41):
that can happen? Mean, you getstuck, everybody, everybody's
worst nightmares, what canhappen, and you, you forget to
tighten down a couple of bolts,and in the middle of the night,
you're like, Oh no,I gotta go back.
I see some horror movies. I canshow you if you want to know
what the worstthat could happen. Oh, thanks.
Would they fall on a spike orsomething?
(18:04):
No, theyget like, yeah, the average
median salary for these workersis $102,000 a year. Now this is
important, because I don't thinkConnie can do this. I'm not sure
how you feel about it. I don'thave claustrophobia, because
I've been in so many MRImachines. By the way, I have so
much experience in the MRImachine, it can't be any
different than the elevator. Soanyway, anyway, it's very
(18:26):
different. But go ahead, youneed to be okay with, first of
all, you need a license. I lovethat. You need to be okay with
being in cramped areas, crawlspaces and machine rooms. You
may also be at heights inelevator shafts.
I mean, there's so many reasonswhy. That's why the pay is so
high. This is every John Wickfilm, yeah, every time you see,
(18:48):
like, in Mission Impossible orJohn Wick, they sneak into the
elevator shaft, yeah,yeah. Guy rides on top, yeah.
You know that's like in takenthree. I watch too many of
these. You really do. It'sunbelievable. Taken three,
because he rides on top of theelevator shaft, and then he gets
the Russian okay, there'sanything wrong with Russians?
Let'sjust circle back real fast the
actual job we're talking about.
Okay, sorry. I think the issuefor me, I can't handle the close
(19:10):
faces. And for you, I thinkyou're too big to get your arms
into the places you have torepair. I think you're too
large. I think we need to findyou something else. I
remember when I was an ROTC atNorth Carolina State. First of
all, I didn't want to cut myhair. I had very long hair, but
I wanted my dad wanted me to go,because he was in navy, and so
I'm there. And I remember one ofthe guys, that was Steve Thomas,
(19:32):
that was in there with me. Andwhy do I want to win this?
Because, well, you don't, youknow if they're gonna send you
to Vietnam. You want to be acaptain or whatever. And I said,
Oh, okay. And then he said, plusyou're really big and they won't
send you in those tunnels. Thatwas like a big selling point for
me, speaking. So I'm sounbelievable. Okay, so I'm gonna
(19:54):
cross out the elevator thing,yeah, the next one, Always Look
on the Bright Side of Life.
Steve Thomas, thankyou for that. Let's. Just,
I know he always came up withthose ideas. What's the worst
that could happen? All right,another good paying job that
does not require a degree issubway and streetcar operators.
Wow, I think I could do thiseasily. Do you need a license?
(20:15):
The workforce needs people whocan operate subways and trains,
and it pays about $84,000 ayear. You only need up to a year
of on the job training.
I mean, yeah, we gotta, wegotta. You need the people that
look just don't look at yourphone. Like the guy on the train
that I used to take to work, hewas looking at his phone and the
train derailed. So, yeah, youjust gotta be, you gotta be
(20:36):
focused. And if you do it, well,nobody ever notices you. I it's
a great job. What great job? Howmany street cars are? There
is a few towns that have streetcars. A lot of malls have street
cars. Now, those outdoor mallspaces and, you know, like any
above ground subway, but groundtrain, and they call it a street
car. I wonder if they I wonderif I'm here. I
wonder if they check. I mean, ofcourse, I've taken a million
(20:58):
subways because I grew up in NewYork. But I wonder if, when you,
when you, when you audition tobe the subway operator, I wonder
if they check out your voice,because everybody seems,
everybody's got that voice.
That's the old New York version.
(21:19):
It's all automated. They have avoice over our that's terrible.
You should that's a that's ajob. Speaking of auditioning,
that's the job you shouldaudition for, is to be the voice
of the next stop, La CienegaBoulevard. No. It never
comes off like that. That's thetrain at the airport, and the
subway is likenow. They have the professionals
do it. It's not the guy in thecar anymore. I
(21:42):
was really bummed out. We justgot back from Italy a little
while ago, and I was reallybummed that I when I found out
that when it one of the churchbells, you know, back there in
the Vatican, it was a recordinglike, what? Yeah. What are you
doing?
Well, because the actual Bellis, like a historical relic
asked by Michelangelo, ring it,yeah? Like,
somebody tell the Pope. Allright.
(22:04):
Oh, this will be fun. You guyswill this will be a conversation
starter for you. Let's look back100 years ago. This is called,
we need some music, but I don'thave it right now. Here it is.
Thank you. What? What adifference a century makes. So
Gib, approximately 100 yearsago. You know where I'm going
here, indoor plumbing was not aregular part of new home
construction until 1900 and thenit was, excuse me, and then it
(22:28):
was mainly for wealthy people,sure. So even in the 1920s fewer
than half of us homes had indoorplumbing. It wasn't until 1930
that it became standard. When Iwas at my grandpa's house in
rural North Carolina, thatthere's no difference without
house.
Yeah. I mean, you know, it's akeep in mind, not only did you
have to pay, and now you know,you can't have a house without
(22:49):
plumbing, but not only did youhave to pay to have the fixtures
put into your house and thepipes in your house, but they
also it took a long time forthem to run the pipes for for
everything, you know, the indoorplumbing, it took some time so
it when you have something thatworks, and I imagine, I imagine,
your grandparents in NorthCarolina were like, well, we
(23:11):
have the well, and we have theouthouse. I'm not spending what
it takes to do all this. No,thank you. I don't need it. And
now, and now it's, you know, nowit's, it's changed. Fundamental.
They spent all their money oncigarettes
and Dr peppers. Those were like,those were free back then,
my grandparents never spoke tome. My grandparents, on the side
(23:33):
of the farm was just like, justgrunts, yeah, and that meant, go
slap the hall. They just pointedat the chicken they wanted you
to kill. Well, no, yeah. I mean,my grandma taught me how to kill
the chicken. That's that's not athat's not cool. I have
nightmares about that, you know?
I mean, it's not like thechickens going along for a ride.
It's a chicken. It resiststaking it to the vet. Yeah, I'm
(23:54):
eating tofu. Okay. Well, listen,you know, I remember this now,
this is in 1920 but I rememberthis vividly in the 1950s and
early 60s, when you had to,like, really, you had to save up
for a long distance phone call.
Yeah. So in 1920 for example, a10 minute call between LA and
New York was 26 bucks, yeah, theequivalent of $250 now, yeah.
(24:19):
I mean, I remember when that wasa was a really big deal where a
phone call was super expensive.
And now, you know, I don't knowof a phone plan. Now, you had to
plan your plan. I don't know ofa phone call if you're dating
somebody you don't have anymoney, yeah. I mean, now I don't
know of a phone of a phone planthat doesn't have unlimited
minutes attached to it, right? Imean, so keep in mind, we had,
you have the long distance phonecall being super expensive for
(24:42):
four years and then, and then,remember, when they would have,
you'd have unlimited talk andtext after a certain time of
day, yeah, so then, so everybodywould start calling you, like,
after 7pm to start having phonecalls, if you like. I remember
this in like. In college, you'dwait till after a certain point
to start calling the girl thatyou were trying to date, because
(25:03):
that was the time when you couldget the free phone call. That's
right. And now it's like, now Ihate using my phone, but I
cannot imagine them charging meto do that. It's all about the
data. Now, yeah,yeah. 100 years ago, most births
took place at home. Yeah,yeah, for better, for worse. I
mean, I know I have some friendswho've had home births, and I
(25:26):
know some people who have hadhome births and loved it. I know
some people who've tried forhome births and had to end up at
a hospital. But I mean, my, youknow, my mother in law is a
labor and delivery nurse, andshe did, I think, two births at
home, and then sold the couchshe gave birth on. So if you're
sitting on the couch out thereright now, it could be one that
my mother in law gave birth onat home,
(25:48):
like they did 100 years ago.
Gosh, thanksfor the detail. You're welcome
a couple of more here. 100 yearsago, a nice, good sized home
cost about $6,300 unbelievable.
If you had, if you got anapartment in Manhattan, the rent
was $60 a month. Can youimagine? You can't,
I mean, you a parking space is,is $6,300 a month now, yeah, 60
(26:09):
bucks a month for for rent.
That's what I that's what I didwhen I went to when I took my
first job in Manhattan, is Iimmediately sold my car because
I just I couldn't afford to keepit. Yeah, and then finally, and
I actually remember this since Iwas born in 52 radio, 100 years
ago and beyond, was the mainform of home entertainment.
Yeah, television was three yearsaway from being demonstrated.
(26:31):
And we say demonstrated, you hadto. You'd go into a store and
they would demonstrate thetelevision, because people were
like, do I want this in my home?
Yeah, is this? Is this thedevil?
Also, they didn't. They had toshow you what the programming
looked like, because youcouldn't fathom what it would
actually be. You didn't have theidea of a screen Exactly.
(26:55):
How does it get in there, right?
That was a big question. Yeah.
I mean, radio is still a greatform of entertainment. We got
radios and podcasts, and the oldradio drama is alive and well
now. So you know, the the oldwireless, the sitting around the
wireless in the living room?
Yep, it has come back in someways, especially on road trips.
We'll listen to these radiodramas in podcast form when we
(27:16):
go on road trips as a family,because they're engaging in the
same way that the wireless usedto be 100 years ago. So I love,
I'm not sure if it was like thisin every household, but when,
when they when NBC with thepeacock, when they came out and
they said, Okay, now, nowthere's the color TV. I remember
my dad, John senior, saying,What, very nice. I forgot to
(27:38):
nothing. My My father was like,You know what? Why do we need
that? I don't need to. I mean,I'm watching, watching the, you
know, watch Cronkite, and I'mwatching the honeymooners. And
why do I need color? Why isthat, you know? Yeah,
yeah. And then, and then, slowlybut surely, I remember, with HD,
(27:59):
I had a cathode ray tube TV forthe longest time before HD took
off and everybody had flatscreen TVs and stuff. I was
like, Yeah, I like this. This isa good enough
TV. The thing is, in suburbia isthat, you know, back on Seabury
road on Long Island, in the 50s,it was all about a couple of
things. One is your yard andyour garden. And if you, if you
(28:23):
had weeds and stuff in there, Imean, you were just like on all
people wouldn't come over yourhouse. You couldn't, you
couldn't hang out with theiryour friends over there, because
it would look like the Adamsfamily house. And then when,
when aluminum siding becameavailable, that was a, that was
it. That was a stature thing,yeah, where you even have that?
(28:43):
Now,no, I don't think they go into I
mean, I'm sure you can getaluminum, take aluminum
things, and you just put it onyour house. And they thought,
Oh, this is great, because whathappens is, it protects you from
the heat. Now, what they forgotto tell you,
and it doesn't, it doesn't erodein the same right? Exactly,
exactly, except. But then yougot, everybody's got a house
(29:04):
made out of aluminum, yeah, butif you
live in tornado country, you gota house made out of switch
plates.
That's the thing with thealuminum that you got to worry
about, is that switch boy, itjust it, just it cuts.
Yeah, you're right.
But what would happen is, theydidn't tell you this, right?
Because they the whole idea was,you get a white you'll get black
(29:26):
aluminum, you know, yeah, soit's reflective, right? But it
does absorb a lot of heat. Andso what would happen to me, as,
like, a six year old, as I'd bein my bed, and, you know, it
would be, I don't know, eighto'clock at night, unless they
start hearing, are you thinkingsomebody's get coming into the
(29:48):
house? Aluminum cooling down?
Yes, yeah. And then my dad, hedidn't want to get air
conditioning, so he got likethis. He was very handy. And so
we had with, you know, a twostory, small house. And with an
attic. So he installed a anexhaust fan in there. I've told
you this story before, and itbut it wasn't like an exhaust
fan, like you see in the in thein the bathroom when you're, you
(30:10):
know, restaurants. This was afull on propeller for a King Air
350 I mean, this thing, thepropeller was like, What in the
hell? And it had, it had louverson it. So if you flipped, if my
dad at six or seven o'clock atnight, right, he would flip,
flip the switch, and the thingwould start sucking air from the
(30:32):
house into the attic, and thelouvers would open up like that.
And if you had a window open, orif you had a door open, or
something like that, you wouldlose an arm, because it was like
Poltergeist, where thepoltergeist is just shutting all
the doors to show off. That'swhat that thing was. And it was
(30:53):
in your hair would be like inyour face, because if you'd be
and if you had friends over, youknow, if they freaked out, if
your friends were like, youknow, had had had low aphrodis
weight, whatever they call it,if they were light, they had a
see, their feet were a littlejust off the floor. No, I'm
serious, but somebody out thereis listening this, and they're
(31:13):
going, Okay, we had one of thosethings too. I mean, imagine
being, you know, at an airport,and you walk to the back of the
plane, and you start gettingsucked towards the propeller.
That's what it was in mybedroom. We I think we've
processed some trauma today, andI'm glad that really try
was pretty cool, because what wewould do is we take we had army
(31:34):
men, like your son does now, andwe line them all up, and then
they would just get sucked outthe door. That's like,
well, you know what? We'll diveinto that. Not interesting.
We'll dive into that nextweek. Thanks. That's all we got,
even if it wasn't all we got.
Gib,I don't know, I don't know where
to go with the Army gettingsucked out of your house. Okay,
(31:55):
let's talk about productivity.
No,I think we're done. All right.
We appreciate you listening topodcast, and the audience is
growing, if you know that.
But it is, yeah, they all theywant to hear about is the
propeller fan destroying yourarmy
man. When you get old enough,you've got these stories. You
know, if you're like, how didyou even survive? You know, it's
time for me to write anotherbook. It is, it is, and I'm
(32:17):
going to call the book mysisters tried to flush me down
the toilet, which is a truestory. Yeah, okay, anyway,
thanks for joining the podcast.
I'm John Tesch Gib Gerard.
Gerard, we are out. You.
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