April 16, 2009 • 22 mins
Toads have a reputation as wart-spreaders, but they're not actually to blame for the unsightly growths. Viruses are. Tune in to this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com to get the skinny on toads, warts and viruses.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know?
From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as
one Mr Charles W. Luscious Bryant, we call him Chuckers.
He calls me to come to his head and this
(00:21):
is stuff you should know. Welcome. How's it going, Chuck, dude?
That may be the best intro ever. Thank you. It's
the fact that I'm not wearing pants right now. I
think I feel very free and easy, compass head and
a little sweaty. Actually okay, then, so, Chuck, have you
ever had warts? Did you have warts when your kid um?
I have had two incidences of warts. Currently, I have
(00:44):
a wart on my uh, sort of near my knee
and it's been there a long time and it's not
one of those real gnarly ones. It sticks up, you know,
out into the universe. It's like pretty small and not
a big deal. And then I had planners wards when
I was like fifteen. Have you ever had those? No?
I have? These are the war dude, It's awful. Did
(01:05):
they hurt really, really painful. Yeah, they grow up into
your foot instead of out. And I think I caught
it from my brother because he had it and when
he was at Georgia Tech. Brother was dirty, dirty, dirty Scott.
And uh it was the handsome one that Christina Ricci likes.
Oh yeah, like a male model, that guy. Um, it
was great growing up in a shadow too, because he's
(01:27):
like way smarter than me and slam and trim. It's
great anyway. Uh and happy birthday by the way to
my brother. Oh, happy birthday, Scott, and uh Molly Edmonds,
Happy birthday, Molly Fellow writer that aside, I had planners
words and it's really really painful, and I had them
burned off and that was painful. Yeah, with the frozen
(01:48):
liquid nitrogen. Yes, I have been through that experience too. Yeah.
I had warts on like my fingers on my elbows
here there when I was a kid. Yeah, every once
in a while, like they just kind of pop up,
and my mom would be like, let's go to the
I guess the dermatologists and quit picking up frogs. Yeah,
we told that, not quite. I had a pretty good story.
(02:09):
But yes, I have heard that toads specifically, cause wards
I've heard that as well, that's not true, but it's
not let's start. Let's well, so wow, wow, every bit
is segue just fell away like you just you just
got rid of an entire page of this article with that.
Well that's because we don't plan this stuff out. What
do you want to talk about? Australia? Okay, alright, So
(02:34):
Australia has a pretty big problem right now, right, probably
more than one. But this this one we're talking about
is well, yeah, they're in the grip of like a
horrible drought still aren't aren't they? And it's hitting their
bread basket to basket. Um, yeah, what they have? This
one problem is with the giant Kane toad Buffo marinus.
(02:57):
And I love that buffo. It sounds like a giant
Kane toad name right, So these things get to be
like two pounds, which is pretty substantial for a toad.
That would scare me. Well back in n um the
the the Australian government imported a hundred and one uh
giant kane toads from Hawaii. I love that it was
(03:18):
one on one. Yeah, It's like they gathered a hundred
and then there must have been like one lucky frog day. Yeah,
they're like, you come to come on, let's go to Australia,
kid um. So yeah, they imported him to Queensland from Hawaii.
And actually these things are indigenous to Central and South America,
but apparently they can live in Hawaii to right. Um.
And they they the reason they imported him was to
(03:39):
fight this um giant cane beetle. No, not giant cane beetle,
just to play an old cane beetle. Uh. And apparently
giant kane toads like to eat cane beetles, makes sense.
So the Australia had a big infestation in their crop
lands with these cane beetles, so they imported the giant
kane toads, and the giant kane toads did absolutely nothing
to eradicate the cane beetle. Right. I think a lot
(04:01):
of times when you introduce a species and non native
species to an area thinking it will accomplish some feet,
it usually ends up backfiring. Yeah. Oh definitely, kind of
like kudzoo here in the South. Yeah, but that one
wasn't that. That was a gift actually from our Japanese friends,
thanks for that. In the thirties. Well, they keep in
order control over there, but here in the South, it
just it grows like kudzo. Right. Yeah, And for those
(04:26):
friends of ours who are listening that have never been
to the southeastern United States, this stuff can take over
a hundred and fifty foot tall oak and kill it
of swallow it hole. It looks like it does never
seen it looks a lot like but it also has
this kind of creepy quality, like I'm killing this tree.
Check it out. And you can't do anything to kill
this stuff, and it's out of control. So I guess
(04:48):
what we're trying to say is please help us, send help. Um. So, anyway,
the giant kane to did nothing to eradicate the cane beetle.
And even worse, they apparently are olific lovers because since
that hundred and one original cane toads turned into the billions,
there are billions of cane toads in Australia now literally
(05:10):
overran the entire country. Yeah, in continent. Here's the most
unsettling part. They are slowly hopping toward civilization Perth and
then Sydney, And I mean, isn't that just a creepy thought.
Billions of toads like slowly coming your way? Have you
ever seen the documentary? No, there was an awesome documentary
(05:31):
it's really old um called Cane Toads and Unnatural History
by a documentary named Mark Lewis, and it's kind of
one of these classic documentaries. Yes, we're like Grey Gardens
just taken on like this cult following Yes, which is
our producer Jerry's favorite movie of all time, Greg Gardens. Yeah, really,
you didn't know that. We've had like this conversation eight times.
I don't remember that. I just watched that this past weekend,
(05:53):
though for the first time I've never seen it either.
It was unsettling, I thought a bit long. And I'm
looking forward to the HBO movie starting one Miss Drew
Barrymore and one Miss Jessica Lain right right, And this
is so like such a segue. But well, let me
say this, since we're not a tangent, this is highly tangential.
(06:13):
And this is a tangent on a tangent. One of
my friends named bo kelly Um actually apparently had a
ring that he lent to the people who made this
HBO remake and the guy whoever the characters that plays
as the piano for the women a lot. He wears
the ring in most of these scenes. That is weird,
isn't it weird? I just found that out yesterday and
(06:33):
I don't know how it pertains to anything, but there
you go. Okay, So back to giant kane to billions
of them is where we left off, and they are
moving towards the big city, right and uh, the problem
is they have no natural predators right right, which is
and even worse, the the predators that are around Australia
haven't figured out that they shouldn't mess with these kane
(06:55):
toes because what happens is the giant kane toes are
highly toxic um. They emit a cocktail of four keene
toxins um from the warts on their back, which are
actually glands. Right, that's right, that's we should say that again.
The warts on a frog are glands. War but that's
(07:16):
where you get the impression that toad can give you wards. Yeah.
So anyway, so things like crocodiles, dingoes, all sorts of
other animals are being killed by picking up these giant
kane todes. You get scared, secrete this toxin, and then
all of a sudden, some alligator's belly up. And I'm
sure a two pound cane toad looks like a nice
meal for I don't think so. Yeah, we're I'm not
(07:38):
aware of their toxins. I need one, I cook it first,
but sure. Um So, anyway, as big a problem as
these cane toads are posing, uh the Australians right now, um,
one thing they're not going to do is cause wards.
There was our segue that you ruined earlier, but now
it's it's all good, right, Am I for given? Yeah? Okay,
(08:01):
So toads absolutely do not cause warts. We can say
that with factual Yeah. And you know how we know that? Um? Science? Science? Sure,
well what science has told us is that, um, since
toads don't actually have warts, they have glands, and we
(08:22):
know that actually it's the human Pavlova virus that causes
warts HPV, better known as hpp uh. And since toads
don't secrete HPV, toads can't give you wards. There you go. Yeah,
so that's it. Should we just pack it up? No?
Should we talk about HPV. Let's talk about HPV, which
may ring a bell for people because there was a
(08:43):
there's been a huge push but it was really prominent
in two thousand and six and two thousand seven to
get mandatory inoculations for young girls against HPV. Yeah, I
mean it's it's a lot of people are affected by HPV. Um.
They estimate twenty million people in the US alone are
effected with some form of HPV. And there are about
one hundred different types of HPV, right, and some of
(09:06):
them are worse than others, Like the HPV inoculation that
that um that the government was the state governments are
pushing forth inoculates against the strain that gives you cervical cancer,
which is the biggest threat HPV poses a person. There's
slightly lesser ones like genital awards, which won't kill you,
(09:26):
but it's not pleasant and good luck finding a partner
for that one. Yeah, I mean those two words together
don't make people feel good in general. That's why I
was glad you said your reward was near your knee. Yeah. Um,
so yeah, it can cause general awards, and of course
HPV can also cause good old fashioned regular awards, but
that can I say a little aside about that push
(09:49):
for HPV inoculations and this interesting Yeah, I think so.
Thanks for the voted confidence UM. But basically in two
thousand and six seven that huge push to get UM
girls inoculated as part of like the mom's rubella, if
you want to go to school, you have to get
an HPV inoculation. UM. At the forefront of this push
(10:12):
was a group called Women in Government Yes, and they
are this huge assemblage of female elected officials, which is fine,
and they took up the cause. So far, so good, right, UM.
The problem is it was revealed that a large proportion
of WHIGS funding was coming from Merk Mark's the pharmaceutical company,
(10:36):
and they are the only ones who have an FDA
approved HPV inoculation on the market. So if all fifty
states started passing mandatory HPV inoculation legislation, then Mark stands
again quite a bit because there's no competition for that
kind of set things back a little bit. But as
of I think the two thousand eight there are forty
(10:58):
one different state legislation natures that had bills on the floor,
if not already passed, mandating that girls have to get
HPV inoculations, and nineteen states have already enacted them. Good
enough there, so the same thing that can give you
cervical cancer can also give you wards. Right. Most people
can walk around with HPV and not even know it,
(11:19):
may not even have common wards. Right, but if you
do get common wars, what's what's going on there? Chuck? Well,
I mean usually their words are going to be on
your hands and fingers. Um. And aside from the way
it looks, because words kind of have a negative connotation physically,
but aside from the aesthetics of it, there's really no
threat that they pose. They're not cancerus, which is weird
because all cancers is uncontrolled growth and all award is
(11:43):
is uncontrolled cellular growth. It is weird. But they eventually
stopped growing. I guess a tumor never stops growing until
it's dealt with. And worts can absolutely spread from one
person to another, even through shared objects. Yeah, you don't
have to go like if you had a word on
your cheek. I don't have to go and lick your
your wart right now to get it. All you have
to do is come in contact with your dirty older
(12:05):
brother and bam, you got warts. Yeah. I totally caught
it from him. It's weird. You can even get it
off of sharing a bath toel with somebody with warts,
it's a it's a hardy virus. Yeah. Um. So the
other problem is is although warts do eventually stopped growing,
when they die, they slough off and which spreads. So like,
(12:27):
if you ever have warts like a warda on your finger,
you can probably look forward to getting warts on other
fingers nearby or very close by. This life cycle, it's um,
it's not never ending. Eventually your body will produce the
anybody's needed to work off the warts. But sometimes you
have to wait longer, longer times than others. But they
will eventually go away, which is good to know. So
(12:48):
what do you What do you do if you want
to get rid of your warts? You don't feel like
waiting around for your body to catch up and get
rid of them? Right, Well, you can take some nail clippers,
I'm just kidding about. What you can do is what
we were talking about earlier. You can freeze them off.
It's called croywd therapy and that's when they use the
liquid nitrogen. And there are also some over the counter
(13:09):
home remedies that have sell sellocyclics how you pronounce it,
sellocyclic acid as the active ingredient. And both of these
methods basically will create a blister around the area of
the ward, and then that will be shed once the
blister falls off. So the blister falls off, and basically
what you're doing is you're making your skin react in
such a way that it covers up the war so
(13:31):
it can't spread. And then when the blister falls off,
because it goes underneath the war and over the ward
and along the sides, basically encapsulates it. Then your blister
eventually goes away, but it takes the wart with it.
That's kind of gross. It is gross, and it's really
simple and basic works and it's it's kind of elegant
and it's simplicity, and I know, uh, if if it's
really bad, you can opt for laser surgery, UM and
(13:55):
prescription treatments. If if you have genital warts, you might
want to go that right. Well, no, if you if
your common warts don't work very well, if you have
general awards, they're gonna give you prescription medicine. But if
your common warts aren't responding to like cryotherapy or anything,
that may give you the prescription for genital awards. Because
hardcore stuff, I imagine a laser they do for everything nowadays.
(14:16):
I love that. Just hit it, just hit it with
blaser over the best. Right. There's also something called a
blister beetle, and it lives up to its name. Right.
So they figured out how to extract a certain toxin
from the blister beetle, which causes a blister reaction in
human skin, and basically it does the same thing is, um,
you know whatever. What was the first thing you said
(14:36):
that creates a blister that cryotherapy? Yeah? Yeah, so it's
the same thing, except it's it's natural because it's a
beetle extracture. And some people are into that, like Spanish fly,
which is not good forwards or anything. So check let's see.
Uh oh, did you want to mention that one? That
one old wives tale what to do if you have warts? Yeah,
(14:59):
I've never heard this actually, so good on you. Um.
Apparently burying a cat at midnight is one of the
wives tales that you could And does that mean bearing
a live cat? I check that out and no, it's
a dead cat. Okay, so bearing a dead cat at
midnight we'll get rid of your warts. Obviously this isn't
true bearing a live cat well, I mean it's like,
(15:20):
I don't know, yeah, this won't really work, right, But
I mean, where would you find a dead cat as well?
I mean that's yeah, I guess you could. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The whole thing is just not true. This is kind
of unsettling, And that's one of the old wives. That's
like a billion frogs approaching its civilization unsettling, like how
do you get a dead cat? You should watch that documentary.
It's I totally will it's really gonna go watch it
(15:41):
after this because I don't feel like working any longer today.
So I guess that's about it. Oh. Even though, even
though uh, toads won't give you warts, you probably shouldn't
pick them up anyway, because toads like the pe all
over your hand, which might not hurt you, but it's
kind of gross. So you should probably just leave the
toads alone unless they're hallucinogenic, and then you can lick
(16:04):
them do your heart's content. Yeah, I think every time
I've picked up a frog or a toad, it's pete
in my hand. Really, you're not gonna c o a
on the hallucinogenic toad endorsement. No. I like frogs and stuffing.
They're kind of cool, Okay, have it. I won't lick
them though, Oh you want? Okay, all right, so that's it.
Go forth and tell everyone actually punch someone in the
(16:25):
neck the next time they tell you toads can give
you words unless it's your mother, and then you should
show more respect than that. Absolutely. So you want to
do a little pluggy plug, Sure, let's do it. Okay, Um,
shall we plug the audio spoken word we've been doing
We've been doing it like that first and then the blog.
So let's just do the blog and then do the
book word. Switch it up a little bit, pal, And
(16:46):
you're blowing my mind. By now, most of you probably
know we have a blog, a weblog on our internet
site how Stuffworks dot com. You can find it on
the right side of the home page and it's called
Stuff you Should Know. And Josh and I post and
we talked about cool things, and we've been interacting with
the fans and it's been a good experience and I
hope it continues to grow. We've got some great fans,
don't we. We do really smart people. And it's one
(17:08):
of the few blogs I've seen so far where the
comments don't take a a bad turn and people don't
start fighting with each other. And we've only had one
right that Nazi referenced. Oh he has some crack. So
it's all very above board and we're real pleased about that.
Good nicely, don't Chucks. And now you want me to
do the spoken word thing. So if you don't know
(17:29):
by now, Chuck and I and Jerry produced our first
spoken word album, uh. And it is called The Stuff
You Should Know super Stuff Guide to the Economy, and
it is jam packed with information about the economy, all
sorts of bells and whistles. There's chickens, there's um cows,
(17:50):
there's grocery stores. We go to New York, we go
to China. Yeah, it's it's amazing. It's amazing. Um yeah,
I like it, Chuck, I have to say I like it. Yea.
I was terrified that it was going to be awful.
Um and it came out really well, I think. And
it's up. It's up for sale on iTunes for three
dollars and cents, just type of super stuffed into the
iTunes store search bar and that that should be the
(18:13):
first thing that comes up and you want to download it.
That's cool with us. Um, yeah, it is cool. The
more people who downloaded, the more likely it's going to
be that we'll be able to do another one, which
we're hoping to do very soon, so keeping out for
that too. And um, I guess that's it right. Well,
we got a little uh listen to all right, listener
mail Okay, Chuck, what you got, buddy? I have two
(18:39):
quick emails, uh, And I'm just gonna call this funny fans, Okay,
And let me add real quick that for those of
you who email in, I respond to your emails, and
if you have not gotten an answer from me, and
it's been more than a couple of weeks, and that
means it has gone into a junk mail uh situation.
And I apologize. I don't know why that happens. That
(19:01):
it's my junk male settings, but I'm not ignoring you.
So if you feel like sending it again, please do
when I'll get back nice. Having said that, Uh, this
was a great one from Alex in Germany. Hey, guys,
I'm a student from Germany and I really enjoy your podcast.
Last year I went to college in California and listening
to explain stuff makes me very nostalgic on top of
(19:21):
much smarter. On numerous occasions. However, you have mentioned the Germans. Germans,
I have nothing to complain about historic facts, but as
an avid learner of the English language, I feel made
fun of. It's true that I am obese, I wear
later hosen, and I have a huge mustache, but my
pronunciation of th h is flawless. Greetings from Zamzeland, Alex
(19:43):
Gym So. Alex had a very good sense of humor
about that. Yeah, and we should probably say that's a
reference to what snatch? Right? Oh? Is it? Are you serious?
You haven't known what I was doing the whole time. Now,
I had no idea. How have you not seen Snatch? Yeah,
it's been a while, you know. Jason Statham, Uh, yeah,
his his character. He says that he goes, yes, it's
a German's and I do a terrible impression of it.
(20:05):
But that's what I'm doing, So I'm learning. Yeah, I
feel mis understood, all right. And this is our other
funny fan are very strange friend, our oddball crack pot
friend from Seattle. And this isn't even his real name,
so I can say it. Martin s van Nostrin a
k A king buck, a fart? Is this hijaka looka
(20:28):
yeah nice and he he is awesome. And this guy
writes is quite a bit, and he's made songs for
us and I checked out his website, which she didn't
want us to plug, so I won't. Can we talk
about that? Can we mention this song? Um? I think
we can mention the song? He He made a song
fourteen seconds long a time on his album right, it's
called He's called Stuff you Should Know. And it's awesome. Yeah,
(20:50):
it's awesome. And this guy is just one of the
great strange folks that have been in contact with him.
We love oddballs because we're out balls, so he writes
in this is just one of his emails. I really
do prefer stuff from your pod rather than the rest.
Maybe it's your sterling personality or maybe it's your aluminum wit.
No offense to the other pods, but they seem to
(21:10):
be the entertainment equivalent of rice cakes. You know, they're
good for you, but they're too dang dry. Thanks for
the excellent show. That's that is all I listened to. Now,
well that and Mongolian throat singing, which is a real thing.
But yeah, you can do like two different tones at once.
Pretty cool. They can keep up with good work and
don't be ashamed of your rainbow suspenders. If you could
do me one favor, and we usually don't do this,
(21:31):
so please don't write in and ask us to say
hi to people, but we are in this case. If
you could tell my old lady Leah that she's the
best around on air, that'd be cool, but please sing
it like the song from The Karate Kid by Joe
Esposito called You're the Best Around is totally cheese ball
and U chuck to it. You remember the song I
have the MP three, So Leah, old Lady of ben
(21:53):
Nostron yelled the best around. Nothing's ever gonna keep you down.
So that's it. That's all we will do. And you
are one of our favorite fans and a really cool
funny guy. Yeah, thank you to everybody for writing in.
Whether we've read your fan mail or not your letters,
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(22:14):
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(22:39):
the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, Are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know?
From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as
one Mr Charles W. Luscious Bryant, we call him Chuckers.
He calls me to come to his head and this
(00:21):
is stuff you should know. Welcome. How's it going, Chuck, dude?
That may be the best intro ever. Thank you. It's
the fact that I'm not wearing pants right now. I
think I feel very free and easy, compass head and
a little sweaty. Actually okay, then, so, Chuck, have you
ever had warts? Did you have warts when your kid um?
I have had two incidences of warts. Currently, I have
(00:44):
a wart on my uh, sort of near my knee
and it's been there a long time and it's not
one of those real gnarly ones. It sticks up, you know,
out into the universe. It's like pretty small and not
a big deal. And then I had planners wards when
I was like fifteen. Have you ever had those? No?
I have? These are the war dude, It's awful. Did
(01:05):
they hurt really, really painful. Yeah, they grow up into
your foot instead of out. And I think I caught
it from my brother because he had it and when
he was at Georgia Tech. Brother was dirty, dirty, dirty Scott.
And uh it was the handsome one that Christina Ricci likes.
Oh yeah, like a male model, that guy. Um, it
was great growing up in a shadow too, because he's
(01:27):
like way smarter than me and slam and trim. It's
great anyway. Uh and happy birthday by the way to
my brother. Oh, happy birthday, Scott, and uh Molly Edmonds,
Happy birthday, Molly Fellow writer that aside, I had planners
words and it's really really painful, and I had them
burned off and that was painful. Yeah, with the frozen
(01:48):
liquid nitrogen. Yes, I have been through that experience too. Yeah.
I had warts on like my fingers on my elbows
here there when I was a kid. Yeah, every once
in a while, like they just kind of pop up,
and my mom would be like, let's go to the
I guess the dermatologists and quit picking up frogs. Yeah,
we told that, not quite. I had a pretty good story.
(02:09):
But yes, I have heard that toads specifically, cause wards
I've heard that as well, that's not true, but it's
not let's start. Let's well, so wow, wow, every bit
is segue just fell away like you just you just
got rid of an entire page of this article with that.
Well that's because we don't plan this stuff out. What
do you want to talk about? Australia? Okay, alright, So
(02:34):
Australia has a pretty big problem right now, right, probably
more than one. But this this one we're talking about
is well, yeah, they're in the grip of like a
horrible drought still aren't aren't they? And it's hitting their
bread basket to basket. Um, yeah, what they have? This
one problem is with the giant Kane toad Buffo marinus.
(02:57):
And I love that buffo. It sounds like a giant
Kane toad name right, So these things get to be
like two pounds, which is pretty substantial for a toad.
That would scare me. Well back in n um the
the the Australian government imported a hundred and one uh
giant kane toads from Hawaii. I love that it was
(03:18):
one on one. Yeah, It's like they gathered a hundred
and then there must have been like one lucky frog day. Yeah,
they're like, you come to come on, let's go to Australia,
kid um. So yeah, they imported him to Queensland from Hawaii.
And actually these things are indigenous to Central and South America,
but apparently they can live in Hawaii to right. Um.
And they they the reason they imported him was to
(03:39):
fight this um giant cane beetle. No, not giant cane beetle,
just to play an old cane beetle. Uh. And apparently
giant kane toads like to eat cane beetles, makes sense.
So the Australia had a big infestation in their crop
lands with these cane beetles, so they imported the giant
kane toads, and the giant kane toads did absolutely nothing
to eradicate the cane beetle. Right. I think a lot
(04:01):
of times when you introduce a species and non native
species to an area thinking it will accomplish some feet,
it usually ends up backfiring. Yeah. Oh definitely, kind of
like kudzoo here in the South. Yeah, but that one
wasn't that. That was a gift actually from our Japanese friends,
thanks for that. In the thirties. Well, they keep in
order control over there, but here in the South, it
just it grows like kudzo. Right. Yeah, And for those
(04:26):
friends of ours who are listening that have never been
to the southeastern United States, this stuff can take over
a hundred and fifty foot tall oak and kill it
of swallow it hole. It looks like it does never
seen it looks a lot like but it also has
this kind of creepy quality, like I'm killing this tree.
Check it out. And you can't do anything to kill
this stuff, and it's out of control. So I guess
(04:48):
what we're trying to say is please help us, send help. Um. So, anyway,
the giant kane to did nothing to eradicate the cane beetle.
And even worse, they apparently are olific lovers because since
that hundred and one original cane toads turned into the billions,
there are billions of cane toads in Australia now literally
(05:10):
overran the entire country. Yeah, in continent. Here's the most
unsettling part. They are slowly hopping toward civilization Perth and
then Sydney, And I mean, isn't that just a creepy thought.
Billions of toads like slowly coming your way? Have you
ever seen the documentary? No, there was an awesome documentary
(05:31):
it's really old um called Cane Toads and Unnatural History
by a documentary named Mark Lewis, and it's kind of
one of these classic documentaries. Yes, we're like Grey Gardens
just taken on like this cult following Yes, which is
our producer Jerry's favorite movie of all time, Greg Gardens. Yeah, really,
you didn't know that. We've had like this conversation eight times.
I don't remember that. I just watched that this past weekend,
(05:53):
though for the first time I've never seen it either.
It was unsettling, I thought a bit long. And I'm
looking forward to the HBO movie starting one Miss Drew
Barrymore and one Miss Jessica Lain right right, And this
is so like such a segue. But well, let me
say this, since we're not a tangent, this is highly tangential.
(06:13):
And this is a tangent on a tangent. One of
my friends named bo kelly Um actually apparently had a
ring that he lent to the people who made this
HBO remake and the guy whoever the characters that plays
as the piano for the women a lot. He wears
the ring in most of these scenes. That is weird,
isn't it weird? I just found that out yesterday and
(06:33):
I don't know how it pertains to anything, but there
you go. Okay, So back to giant kane to billions
of them is where we left off, and they are
moving towards the big city, right and uh, the problem
is they have no natural predators right right, which is
and even worse, the the predators that are around Australia
haven't figured out that they shouldn't mess with these kane
(06:55):
toes because what happens is the giant kane toes are
highly toxic um. They emit a cocktail of four keene
toxins um from the warts on their back, which are
actually glands. Right, that's right, that's we should say that again.
The warts on a frog are glands. War but that's
(07:16):
where you get the impression that toad can give you wards. Yeah.
So anyway, so things like crocodiles, dingoes, all sorts of
other animals are being killed by picking up these giant
kane todes. You get scared, secrete this toxin, and then
all of a sudden, some alligator's belly up. And I'm
sure a two pound cane toad looks like a nice
meal for I don't think so. Yeah, we're I'm not
(07:38):
aware of their toxins. I need one, I cook it first,
but sure. Um So, anyway, as big a problem as
these cane toads are posing, uh the Australians right now, um,
one thing they're not going to do is cause wards.
There was our segue that you ruined earlier, but now
it's it's all good, right, Am I for given? Yeah? Okay,
(08:01):
So toads absolutely do not cause warts. We can say
that with factual Yeah. And you know how we know that? Um? Science? Science? Sure,
well what science has told us is that, um, since
toads don't actually have warts, they have glands, and we
(08:22):
know that actually it's the human Pavlova virus that causes
warts HPV, better known as hpp uh. And since toads
don't secrete HPV, toads can't give you wards. There you go. Yeah,
so that's it. Should we just pack it up? No?
Should we talk about HPV. Let's talk about HPV, which
may ring a bell for people because there was a
(08:43):
there's been a huge push but it was really prominent
in two thousand and six and two thousand seven to
get mandatory inoculations for young girls against HPV. Yeah, I
mean it's it's a lot of people are affected by HPV. Um.
They estimate twenty million people in the US alone are
effected with some form of HPV. And there are about
one hundred different types of HPV, right, and some of
(09:06):
them are worse than others, Like the HPV inoculation that
that um that the government was the state governments are
pushing forth inoculates against the strain that gives you cervical cancer,
which is the biggest threat HPV poses a person. There's
slightly lesser ones like genital awards, which won't kill you,
(09:26):
but it's not pleasant and good luck finding a partner
for that one. Yeah, I mean those two words together
don't make people feel good in general. That's why I
was glad you said your reward was near your knee. Yeah. Um,
so yeah, it can cause general awards, and of course
HPV can also cause good old fashioned regular awards, but
that can I say a little aside about that push
(09:49):
for HPV inoculations and this interesting Yeah, I think so.
Thanks for the voted confidence UM. But basically in two
thousand and six seven that huge push to get UM
girls inoculated as part of like the mom's rubella, if
you want to go to school, you have to get
an HPV inoculation. UM. At the forefront of this push
(10:12):
was a group called Women in Government Yes, and they
are this huge assemblage of female elected officials, which is fine,
and they took up the cause. So far, so good, right, UM.
The problem is it was revealed that a large proportion
of WHIGS funding was coming from Merk Mark's the pharmaceutical company,
(10:36):
and they are the only ones who have an FDA
approved HPV inoculation on the market. So if all fifty
states started passing mandatory HPV inoculation legislation, then Mark stands
again quite a bit because there's no competition for that
kind of set things back a little bit. But as
of I think the two thousand eight there are forty
(10:58):
one different state legislation natures that had bills on the floor,
if not already passed, mandating that girls have to get
HPV inoculations, and nineteen states have already enacted them. Good
enough there, so the same thing that can give you
cervical cancer can also give you wards. Right. Most people
can walk around with HPV and not even know it,
(11:19):
may not even have common wards. Right, but if you
do get common wars, what's what's going on there? Chuck? Well,
I mean usually their words are going to be on
your hands and fingers. Um. And aside from the way
it looks, because words kind of have a negative connotation physically,
but aside from the aesthetics of it, there's really no
threat that they pose. They're not cancerus, which is weird
because all cancers is uncontrolled growth and all award is
(11:43):
is uncontrolled cellular growth. It is weird. But they eventually
stopped growing. I guess a tumor never stops growing until
it's dealt with. And worts can absolutely spread from one
person to another, even through shared objects. Yeah, you don't
have to go like if you had a word on
your cheek. I don't have to go and lick your
your wart right now to get it. All you have
to do is come in contact with your dirty older
(12:05):
brother and bam, you got warts. Yeah. I totally caught
it from him. It's weird. You can even get it
off of sharing a bath toel with somebody with warts,
it's a it's a hardy virus. Yeah. Um. So the
other problem is is although warts do eventually stopped growing,
when they die, they slough off and which spreads. So like,
(12:27):
if you ever have warts like a warda on your finger,
you can probably look forward to getting warts on other
fingers nearby or very close by. This life cycle, it's um,
it's not never ending. Eventually your body will produce the
anybody's needed to work off the warts. But sometimes you
have to wait longer, longer times than others. But they
will eventually go away, which is good to know. So
(12:48):
what do you What do you do if you want
to get rid of your warts? You don't feel like
waiting around for your body to catch up and get
rid of them? Right, Well, you can take some nail clippers,
I'm just kidding about. What you can do is what
we were talking about earlier. You can freeze them off.
It's called croywd therapy and that's when they use the
liquid nitrogen. And there are also some over the counter
(13:09):
home remedies that have sell sellocyclics how you pronounce it,
sellocyclic acid as the active ingredient. And both of these
methods basically will create a blister around the area of
the ward, and then that will be shed once the
blister falls off. So the blister falls off, and basically
what you're doing is you're making your skin react in
such a way that it covers up the war so
(13:31):
it can't spread. And then when the blister falls off,
because it goes underneath the war and over the ward
and along the sides, basically encapsulates it. Then your blister
eventually goes away, but it takes the wart with it.
That's kind of gross. It is gross, and it's really
simple and basic works and it's it's kind of elegant
and it's simplicity, and I know, uh, if if it's
really bad, you can opt for laser surgery, UM and
(13:55):
prescription treatments. If if you have genital warts, you might
want to go that right. Well, no, if you if
your common warts don't work very well, if you have
general awards, they're gonna give you prescription medicine. But if
your common warts aren't responding to like cryotherapy or anything,
that may give you the prescription for genital awards. Because
hardcore stuff, I imagine a laser they do for everything nowadays.
(14:16):
I love that. Just hit it, just hit it with
blaser over the best. Right. There's also something called a
blister beetle, and it lives up to its name. Right.
So they figured out how to extract a certain toxin
from the blister beetle, which causes a blister reaction in
human skin, and basically it does the same thing is, um,
you know whatever. What was the first thing you said
(14:36):
that creates a blister that cryotherapy? Yeah? Yeah, so it's
the same thing, except it's it's natural because it's a
beetle extracture. And some people are into that, like Spanish fly,
which is not good forwards or anything. So check let's see.
Uh oh, did you want to mention that one? That
one old wives tale what to do if you have warts? Yeah,
(14:59):
I've never heard this actually, so good on you. Um.
Apparently burying a cat at midnight is one of the
wives tales that you could And does that mean bearing
a live cat? I check that out and no, it's
a dead cat. Okay, so bearing a dead cat at
midnight we'll get rid of your warts. Obviously this isn't
true bearing a live cat well, I mean it's like,
(15:20):
I don't know, yeah, this won't really work, right, But
I mean, where would you find a dead cat as well?
I mean that's yeah, I guess you could. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The whole thing is just not true. This is kind
of unsettling, And that's one of the old wives. That's
like a billion frogs approaching its civilization unsettling, like how
do you get a dead cat? You should watch that documentary.
It's I totally will it's really gonna go watch it
(15:41):
after this because I don't feel like working any longer today.
So I guess that's about it. Oh. Even though, even
though uh, toads won't give you warts, you probably shouldn't
pick them up anyway, because toads like the pe all
over your hand, which might not hurt you, but it's
kind of gross. So you should probably just leave the
toads alone unless they're hallucinogenic, and then you can lick
(16:04):
them do your heart's content. Yeah, I think every time
I've picked up a frog or a toad, it's pete
in my hand. Really, you're not gonna c o a
on the hallucinogenic toad endorsement. No. I like frogs and stuffing.
They're kind of cool, Okay, have it. I won't lick
them though, Oh you want? Okay, all right, so that's it.
Go forth and tell everyone actually punch someone in the
(16:25):
neck the next time they tell you toads can give
you words unless it's your mother, and then you should
show more respect than that. Absolutely. So you want to
do a little pluggy plug, Sure, let's do it. Okay, Um,
shall we plug the audio spoken word we've been doing
We've been doing it like that first and then the blog.
So let's just do the blog and then do the
book word. Switch it up a little bit, pal, And
(16:46):
you're blowing my mind. By now, most of you probably
know we have a blog, a weblog on our internet
site how Stuffworks dot com. You can find it on
the right side of the home page and it's called
Stuff you Should Know. And Josh and I post and
we talked about cool things, and we've been interacting with
the fans and it's been a good experience and I
hope it continues to grow. We've got some great fans,
don't we. We do really smart people. And it's one
(17:08):
of the few blogs I've seen so far where the
comments don't take a a bad turn and people don't
start fighting with each other. And we've only had one
right that Nazi referenced. Oh he has some crack. So
it's all very above board and we're real pleased about that.
Good nicely, don't Chucks. And now you want me to
do the spoken word thing. So if you don't know
(17:29):
by now, Chuck and I and Jerry produced our first
spoken word album, uh. And it is called The Stuff
You Should Know super Stuff Guide to the Economy, and
it is jam packed with information about the economy, all
sorts of bells and whistles. There's chickens, there's um cows,
(17:50):
there's grocery stores. We go to New York, we go
to China. Yeah, it's it's amazing. It's amazing. Um yeah,
I like it, Chuck, I have to say I like it. Yea.
I was terrified that it was going to be awful.
Um and it came out really well, I think. And
it's up. It's up for sale on iTunes for three
dollars and cents, just type of super stuffed into the
iTunes store search bar and that that should be the
(18:13):
first thing that comes up and you want to download it.
That's cool with us. Um, yeah, it is cool. The
more people who downloaded, the more likely it's going to
be that we'll be able to do another one, which
we're hoping to do very soon, so keeping out for
that too. And um, I guess that's it right. Well,
we got a little uh listen to all right, listener
mail Okay, Chuck, what you got, buddy? I have two
(18:39):
quick emails, uh, And I'm just gonna call this funny fans, Okay,
And let me add real quick that for those of
you who email in, I respond to your emails, and
if you have not gotten an answer from me, and
it's been more than a couple of weeks, and that
means it has gone into a junk mail uh situation.
And I apologize. I don't know why that happens. That
(19:01):
it's my junk male settings, but I'm not ignoring you.
So if you feel like sending it again, please do
when I'll get back nice. Having said that, Uh, this
was a great one from Alex in Germany. Hey, guys,
I'm a student from Germany and I really enjoy your podcast.
Last year I went to college in California and listening
to explain stuff makes me very nostalgic on top of
(19:21):
much smarter. On numerous occasions. However, you have mentioned the Germans. Germans,
I have nothing to complain about historic facts, but as
an avid learner of the English language, I feel made
fun of. It's true that I am obese, I wear
later hosen, and I have a huge mustache, but my
pronunciation of th h is flawless. Greetings from Zamzeland, Alex
(19:43):
Gym So. Alex had a very good sense of humor
about that. Yeah, and we should probably say that's a
reference to what snatch? Right? Oh? Is it? Are you serious?
You haven't known what I was doing the whole time. Now,
I had no idea. How have you not seen Snatch? Yeah,
it's been a while, you know. Jason Statham, Uh, yeah,
his his character. He says that he goes, yes, it's
a German's and I do a terrible impression of it.
(20:05):
But that's what I'm doing, So I'm learning. Yeah, I
feel mis understood, all right. And this is our other
funny fan are very strange friend, our oddball crack pot
friend from Seattle. And this isn't even his real name,
so I can say it. Martin s van Nostrin a
k A king buck, a fart? Is this hijaka looka
(20:28):
yeah nice and he he is awesome. And this guy
writes is quite a bit, and he's made songs for
us and I checked out his website, which she didn't
want us to plug, so I won't. Can we talk
about that? Can we mention this song? Um? I think
we can mention the song? He He made a song
fourteen seconds long a time on his album right, it's
called He's called Stuff you Should Know. And it's awesome. Yeah,
(20:50):
it's awesome. And this guy is just one of the
great strange folks that have been in contact with him.
We love oddballs because we're out balls, so he writes
in this is just one of his emails. I really
do prefer stuff from your pod rather than the rest.
Maybe it's your sterling personality or maybe it's your aluminum wit.
No offense to the other pods, but they seem to
(21:10):
be the entertainment equivalent of rice cakes. You know, they're
good for you, but they're too dang dry. Thanks for
the excellent show. That's that is all I listened to. Now,
well that and Mongolian throat singing, which is a real thing.
But yeah, you can do like two different tones at once.
Pretty cool. They can keep up with good work and
don't be ashamed of your rainbow suspenders. If you could
do me one favor, and we usually don't do this,
(21:31):
so please don't write in and ask us to say
hi to people, but we are in this case. If
you could tell my old lady Leah that she's the
best around on air, that'd be cool, but please sing
it like the song from The Karate Kid by Joe
Esposito called You're the Best Around is totally cheese ball
and U chuck to it. You remember the song I
have the MP three, So Leah, old Lady of ben
(21:53):
Nostron yelled the best around. Nothing's ever gonna keep you down.
So that's it. That's all we will do. And you
are one of our favorite fans and a really cool
funny guy. Yeah, thank you to everybody for writing in.
Whether we've read your fan mail or not your letters,
your correspondence means a lot to us. It does. And uh,
(22:14):
if you want to write us again and you lost
our email or you have never tried it before and
your fingers are feeling froggy, you can send us an
email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com
for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is
it how stuff works dot com? Brought to you by
(22:39):
the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, Are you
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Josh Clark
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