Stuff You Should Know
Hosted by Josh Clark
Does singing make you happy? Yes, yes it does. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Hey, welcome to the short stuff. Josh here, Chuck here, Jerry here, Dave here in spirit. It's short stuff. Sorry. It's short stuff.
Yeah, I'm going to start this one by telling a quick little story of last year. I got in my Instagram feed for a little while, these choirs, these choral singing groups that were, you know, it's kind of a thing now where it's not like, oh, you know, we go to the church and it's an official choir, but like, hey, my friend has a warehouse space and we can put a piano in it and just put out a call to see if like, people want to show up and sing together.
Like humanist choirs?
Is that what it's called?
That's what I'm calling it.
Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, just because, yeah, humanist episode. I got you. Yeah, exactly that. And, you know, they're doing like a cool Radiohead song or something like that, like, or whatever, you know, Christmas music around the holidays. And I was like, you know what, man? I sang in a choir growing up in my church and Emily and I both sing. She sang in show choir and like, we both got a lot out of those experiences and I haven't done it since I was a teenager. And I was like, man, we got a piano and I bet you we could get a group together to come around and do this kind of thing. And I was, I still might do it this year, but I, I never got around to it, but it was something that was really kind of on my, my list.
So are you going to do it though, you think?
Well, I really want to do it.
Okay, well, do it.
Yeah, I do want to because I think, you know, I would be the facilitator, but I would get someone who's like, somebody's got to lead the show because I can't do that, but I'll sing and I'll put, you know, I'll provide the space and the piano.
Okay, there you go. I think that's a good start.
I think it would be fun, like a neighborhood deal and a long way of sort of getting around to this idea that they've kind of learned that singing is good for you and specifically singing together like in a choir.
Right, yeah, that's a big, a big thing. And Chuck, if you did get a choral group together, you guys would be the 250,001st chorus group in the United States because that's how many are in there.
Yeah.
Something like almost 29 billion people regularly sing in a choral group in the United States. And it's the most popular of all arts-related participatory activities.
It's more popular than cross-country painting and charades leagues combined.
You know, interestingly, I saw a study the other day where they found one participatory activity helps stave off dementia more than any other, and it was dance.
Oh, I believe that.
Yeah, because the movement and the, all the benefits of doing a participatory activity, plus the benefits of the exercise and everything, but it was something about dance that, and it was like kind of off the charts and like how good it was for you to do as like, as you age.
Sure, get your troubles, come on, get happy.
All right, so let's talk about singing though, because like if you get together with a choir, obviously everyone there is probably going because they like to sing and they're probably pretty good at singing. But you can just go to your local karaoke bar as evidence that like people love to sing who can't sing at all sometimes, and they will do that in front of people and people will like still watch that and be interested.
For sure. Yeah, people will watch other people who can't sing, sing.
And then people who can't sing will sing in front of other people and feel good about it. Like karaoke is a great example of like the fact that this exists. There's something about singing, including singing in other, in front of other people that actually does give you a positive vibe.
So you said something, though. I mean, like, you can sing at home in the shower. You can sing at home on the couch. You can sing at home in the kitchen.
Sing in the car, for sure.
Sing in the car. You could sing in the laundry room.
Right.
Like, you could sing basically anywhere by yourself. And yes, there are benefits, as we'll see, but because there's something about singing in a group, as we'll kind of unpack, it's just, it provides greater benefits. But if you do sing in your laundry room, you're still going to get some benefits from it. But if you've got a group of people to sing with you in your laundry room, you would be doing really good.
For sure. Uh, good time for a break?
All right, we're gonna talk about what those benefits are, because they seem kind of mysterious, right after this. If you wanna know, then you're in luck. Just listen up to Josh and Chuck. Stuff you should know.
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All right. So like you mentioned before the break, all types of singing is good for you, we found. It releases endorphins, which is always great. If you're singing in front of people, it's gonna, you know, build your confidence. Like, I've seen some not very good singers at karaoke just like still kind of kill it and walk out of there like clearly like kind of brimming with confidence.
Sure.
Which is gonna have like a great effect on your life and well-being.
For sure. But like I said, singing with a group, choral singing, has the most dramatic effects. And there's actually some studies that have shown this. Apparently, in Australia in 2008, a study looked at choral singers and said, hey, how satisfied are you with your life? And they said, really satisfied, so satisfied that if you compared us to the average person from the general public, we're more satisfied with our life. They're like, well, wait a minute, what if we control for all these differences and the only difference is these people sing and the rest of the people don't? Will that still hold true? Yes, it will.
That's right. It's Australia. They said yes, and not now.
And I mean, Australians are generally happy on a whole compared to other, other groups.
No, I totally agree.
So like Australian choral singers through the roof happy, they can't stop smiling.
Yeah, in fact, I'm gonna start saying that I'm gonna say, man, they were as happy as an Australian choral singer.
That's a great one. That's great.
Uh, in 1998, there was another study that found after nursing home residents were, you know, uh, active in a singing program for a month, there were big time decreases in both anxiety and depression levels. And a study in England, uh, 600 British choral singers found that singing plays a central role in their psychological health. Like people get a lot out of it.
Right. Uh, and that would have included, um, Ireland and Wales.
That's right. Actually, I'm not, that didn't look too deeply into that one. But yeah, if it said British, then for sure.
Sure. So, um, some of the physical effects, though, like it actually does, like, we've been talking mostly about well being. We'll talk a little more about that. But physically speaking, singing has a great effect on your body. It's essentially an aerobic exercise because of the way you're breathing.
Uh, you're getting more oxygen in your blood. That improves your circulation. Good circulation makes you happy. I've seen that it's prescribed, um, singing is prescribed to people who are, um, going through lung rehab for some sort of lung issue.
Um, and there's also like, uh, you, you need to breathe deeply. So you're spending like an hour or so, like a week, um, breathing deeply. That's essentially one of like the main parts of meditation and relaxation techniques is, is deep, you know, controlled breathing and singing in a choir requires you to do that.
Yeah, for sure. Uh, I remember talking, um, oh, when was that? I guess it was sometime, uh, late last year when, or I guess early last year, when I was very upset a lot about, um, politics, not, not like I am now, which is like just super stoked all the time.
But I remember talking about sing therapy and that's what I did for a little while. I would like, uh, put on, uh, my piano, it's a little player piano. So I would, um, put that on and I would sing as hard as I could sing. And it really, really felt good. It made a big difference in how I felt.
What were you singing?
Whatever, a lot of Billy Joel.
That's great.
No, like I was singing whatever, uh, whatever you could really belt out, you know?
Okay. I think that's, that's wonderful that you did that for yourself, man.
Yeah, it was, it was fun.
So one of the things that you could have also done, since you probably know every word to every Billy Joel song, you could have learned some new songs, right?
And had you done that, you would have been working your brain, which is another benefit of singing, especially in a group. You have to learn new stuff every week.
Yeah, for sure. And if you're learning things and if you're concentrating, like, all right, I gotta work out my alto part on this thing. I'm a tenor, actually. Work on your tenor part. And then when you get together with your little choir,
or big choir, and you're like, all right, I gotta remember my part here where I come in, like, that's what you're thinking of. That's what's on your mind. You're not thinking of the stress at work, or the stress at home, or the stress in your life, or, or your health stress. Like, it's your chance to park that stuff and really dwell on something else for a while.
Right. And then we finally arrive at one of the big reasons why, probably the biggest reason why, singing in a choir actually has the most benefits of any kind of singing is because you are becoming part of a group.
Yes.
Like, if you've ever been a member of any kind of choir, like, that's a fairly tight group. Everybody knows one another. You're required to rely on one another. Like, you are needed by this group. Your voice is needed, your part is needed. Like, there's a sense of belonging and inclusion that comes from being a member of a choir. And then on top of that, adding in all of the benefits of singing, again, like, this is, it's just really good for you.
Yeah, it's amazing. When we were, I think I told you this backstage, but when we were in Madison, I went a day early and I woke up the next morning and I was, my hotel was like, kind of right on the water, so I had the windows open and, because I could hear the water gently lapping and it was, sounded really nice. But I heard singing, and I was like, like, group singing. And I was like, where is that coming from? And I went and looked out of my window and there was, it turns out that in the hotel, there was a choral festival going on, so there were a bunch of choirs standing there. And there was a group of young people, like, probably 20 of them on a dock, on a pier, singing a Radiohead song. And it was the most lovely thing I had ever heard.
You can't imagine a better way to sort of start your morning than just by hearing that.
In reality, though, backstage, everybody, he told me that he shouted, "Pipe down!"
He's standing at his window.
Shut up, kids.
That's cool, man.
It was great. It was so, so lovely.
Great. Well, I think since we ended that on a high note from one of Chuck's good memories, good recent memories from our visit to Madison, it means short stuff is out.
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Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated