Secrets to Getting Great Customer Service & The Curious Story of Remote Controls

Certain smells can instantly transport you back to another time and place — sometimes more vividly than a photograph ever could. Why is your sense of smell so closely tied to memory, and why are those memories often so emotional? Listen and find out. https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/connections-between-smell-memory-and-health Getting good customer service can feel like an obstacle course. You can’t reach a human being, the chatbot sends you in circles, you wait on hold forever, and sometimes it seems as if the company would simply prefer that you give up. So what actually works when you have a problem and need someone to fix it? Christopher Elliott has spent years helping consumers get results, and he explains the strategies that work, the mistakes that can make things worse, and how some companies manage to provide extraordinary service while others fail miserably. Christopher is a consumer advocate and nationally syndicated columnist who writes the newsletter Elliott Confidential. You can find his work and subscribe at https://www.elliott.org. His podcast is at https://www.elliottshow.com. Remote controls are incredibly convenient — right up until you lose one in the couch cushions or stare at a row of buttons you have never pressed and have no idea what they do. And the remote has changed far more than just the way we watch television. The surprisingly interesting story of how remote controls came to be, how they changed our behavior, and where they may be headed next is told by Caetlin Benson-Allott. She is a professor of English and Film & Media Studies at Georgetown University and author of the book Remote Control (https://amzn.to/4xDig5W). Why do your fingers and toes get all wrinkly after you’ve been in the water for a while? It turns out it is not simply because your skin soaks up water. Your body is actually doing something quite deliberate — and scientists think there is a very practical evolutionary reason for it. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-water-makes-your-skin-look-like-a-prune-and-not-a-plum PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS KA'CHAVA: Ka’Chava’s new Salted Caramel is the perfect balance of mouthwatering flavor and benefits. Embrace your salty side. Go to ⁠https://kachava.com⁠ and use promo code SYSK to get 15% off your first order! TREES. COM: Right now, ⁠⁠https://Trees.com ⁠⁠have great deals on planting essentials, up to half off on select plants. And listeners to our show get 20% OFF their purchase when using the promo code SYSK at checkout. MONARCH: Write your own money story with Monarch! Use promo code SYSK at ⁠⁠⁠https://Monarch.com⁠⁠⁠ to get your 1st year of Monarch Core half off at just $50 VINTED: Ready to clean out your closet and make some extra money? Download the Vinted app for free and start listing! With no seller fees, you keep every dollar you earn and for a limited time, enjoy free shipping in the US on Vinted. WAYFAIR: Ready to upgrade your home for way less? Head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Wayfair.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ right now to shop all things home and get your space ready for less. QUINCE: Find your next Fall favorites at Quince! Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Quince.com/sysk⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too! DELL: Built for those who want better. The Dell XPS, built for you! INDEED: Get a $75 Sponsored Job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://Indeed.com/PODCAST⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Mike Carruthers?

  I thought I had a pretty good idea of where my money was going. And then I started using Monarch. And it turns out, there's a big difference between thinking, you know, and actually seeing it all laid out in front of you. I've spent some time with Monarch now. I've connected everything and really tested it out. And I like it a lot. Your accounts, investments, savings goals, spending, they're all there in one place. But what really got my attention is Monarch doesn't just show you what's happened. It helps you spot what's happening right now. They have an AI weekly recap, and it can flag a spending spike or a change in your net worth or upcoming expenses,

• 0:44Mike Carruthers?

  things that are surprisingly easy to miss on your own. And I found that once you actually see the numbers, you look at your money differently. If you've ever wondered, where exactly is all my money going? I think you'll find Monarch pretty eye opening. Write your own money story with Monarch. Use code SYSK at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code SYSK.

• 1:22Mike Carruthers?

  Today on Something You Should Know. Why do certain smells bring back such vivid memories? Then, getting good customer service. The right and the wrong ways to complain.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  If you say, I'm contacting a lawyer, that gets rooted to the legal department, and that's where complaints go to die. Here's another favorite of mine is I'm never staying in your hotel or flying on your airline again. What incentive do they have to fix the problem if you're leaving?

• 1:51Mike Carruthers?

  Also, the real reason your fingers get wrinkly in the bathtub. And the interesting and curious story of your TV's remote control.

• 2:02Speaker 02

  So you might be wondering, why does your television remote have so many buttons you never use? Those are actually called vestigial buttons. And remote control designers know you're not using them.

• 2:17Mike Carruthers?

  All this today on Something You Should Know. There's probably no better endorsement for a company than this. I keep buying their stuff. That's exactly what's happening with me and Quince. It started with their clothes. I've bought sweaters, polos, pants, jeans, shoes, a belt. And Quince has become one of the first places I look when I need something new to wear. And my wife and son buy from Quince too, all the time. What keeps bringing us back is the quality and the price. Quince uses premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton, merino wool.

• 3:00Mike Carruthers?

  Their cashmere sweaters start at just $60. And with colder weather coming, they have down jackets and classic wool outerwear as well. Quince prices everything 50 to 80% less than similar brands by working directly with ethical factories and cutting out the middlemen. And it's not just clothes. They have bedding, bath, kitchen essentials, and furniture. We even have Quince pillows. So this isn't one of those endorsements where I try something once because they sent it to me. We shop at Quince, and I absolutely recommend you try it. Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com.

• 3:42Mike Carruthers?

  Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, please let them know it was Something You Should Know. It's the best way to support our show.

• 3:58Speaker 03

  Something You Should Know. Fascinating intel, the world's top experts, and practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers.

• 4:11Mike Carruthers?

  We all have lots of triggers that will bring back memories. But there's something about a smell that's pretty special. And that's what we're going to start with today on this episode of Something You Should Know. Hi, I'm Mike Carruthers. So you can look at an old photograph and remember the past, but catch a whiff of your grandmother's perfume or your childhood home or freshly cut grass, and suddenly you can feel as if you've actually been transported. There's a reason that smell can have such an extraordinary effect on memory. Information from most of our senses takes a more roundabout route through the brain.

• 4:54Mike Carruthers?

  But smell has an unusually direct connection to areas of the brain involved in emotion and memory. And studies have found that memories triggered by odors tend to be particularly emotional and often come from earlier periods in our lives. There's even a useful way to take advantage of this. If you're trying to remember something from long ago, don't just think harder. Try recreating some of the sensory cues that surround it. A particular perfume, a song, a location, or other familiar smell. Sometimes the memory isn't gone. You just haven't found the right key to unlock it. And that is something you should know.

• 5:38Mike Carruthers?

  Everybody has at least one good customer service nightmare story. You have a problem, you call the company, and before long, you're trapped in a maze of automated menus, chatbots, hold music, and representatives who either can't or won't fix the problem. And sometimes, just figuring out how to reach an actual human being feels like an accomplishment. But now here's the good news. When something goes wrong, there are ways to dramatically improve your chances of getting the company to actually help you. There are certain things to say, people to contact, and strategies that work surprisingly well. And there are also some common things customers do

• 6:21Mike Carruthers?

  that make the situation worse. Christopher Elliott has spent years helping consumers solve exactly these kinds of problems. He is a consumer advocate and nationally syndicated columnist who writes the newsletter Elliott Confidential. And he recently launched a podcast. He knows how companies handle complaints, where the pressure points are, and what you can do to get better customer service when things go wrong. Hi, Christopher, welcome to Something You Should Know.

• 6:51Speaker 01

  Thanks for having me.

• 6:52Mike Carruthers?

  So if you had to take a snapshot of the world of customer service and grade it, where are we? Is it good? Is it better? Is it getting worse? What do you think of the world of customer service?

• 7:05Speaker 01

  Well, I should preface my answer by saying that one of my specialties is travel. So I deal with a lot of travel complaints. But I also deal with a fair number of other consumer complaints. Things like, you know, cars that you bought at a dealership that ended up breaking down or appliances that stopped working. And overall, right now, we're in a phase of automation, which is to say, when you call a company, you get put through to a chatbot and you have to deal with phone trees, chatbots, AI, that sort of thing. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But we're in the early stages of that now. I don't know how it's going to end. Overall, I'm kind of mildly optimistic

• 7:49Speaker 01

  that automation might improve things, but the jury is still out.

• 7:54Mike Carruthers?

  So often when people talk about customer service, what they're really meaning is complaining. They have a complaint. They're seldom are they calling to say how wonderful everything is. They're calling because there's a problem. And I would imagine, I mean, in my sense is that how you approach it, who you come off as, if you're a jerk or if you're a reasonable human being, that has a lot to do with how this conversation's going to go.

• 8:23Speaker 01

  You're absolutely correct. It's, the approach is really important. It's probably more important now than ever. Most people, well, I would say of a certain generation, but certainly it applies to all readers that I've encountered. They think that if you just pick the phone up and call the company, that you're going to be able to fix a problem. And increasingly, that is not the case anymore. You have to have a paper trail. And you have to be factual, not emotional when you're dealing with a company. And you can't come off as being complainy or whiny because that can actually affect the outcome of your complaint. And I'll just give you an example if you want.

• 9:03Mike Carruthers?

  Yeah, please.

• 9:04Speaker 01

  If you say, I'm contacting a lawyer, which a lot of people will do out of frustration, even though they don't even have access to a lawyer, that gets rooted to the legal department, and that's where complaints go to die.

• 9:19Mike Carruthers?

  So those kind of threats don't do much.

• 9:22Speaker 01

  I mean, unless you actually are prepared to go to court. But here's the thing, though, if you are going to go to court, you don't make a threat to a customer service representative. You send a legal letter and it goes to the legal department and that's where it gets dealt with. Here's another favorite of mine is, is, uh, is I'm never staying in your hotel or flying on your airline again. What incentive do they have to fix the problem if you're, if you're leaving? So yeah, those are some of the things that will, will kill your complaint immediately.

• 9:54Mike Carruthers?

  What about threatening, you know, I, we're not, it's not even a threat, but what about going to the top rather than deal with a customer service rep? Let me speak to your supervisor and let me speak to his supervisor or her supervisor until somebody gives me the answer I want.

• 10:12Speaker 01

  About two decades ago, I tried helping a reader who, who asked the almost the identical question is, is there someone I can appeal this to? And I, I did a lot of research and finally found an email address. Back then, people still, their email addresses were still relatively hidden and, and helped someone with their complaint because they, they ended up escalating it to, it, it wasn't the CEO, it was like the chief customer service officer. And out of that came this idea for our directory of executive contacts. And it started with just travel, but it's, it expanded quickly beyond that.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  And now we have nearly 3,000 companies at elliott.org. That's E L L I O T T dot O R G. If you go there, you can just find that directory. And to answer your question in a very roundabout way, yes, it does help. You can, you can escalate. When someone tells you on the phone, there's no one to appeal to, they are lying. There's always someone to appeal to. And these executives try really hard to keep their email addresses and phone numbers a secret. You would be shocked at the number of lawyer letters that I get demanding that I take down this information, but it is protected under the first amendment. And, and there is a correct way of using this too. You don't start with the CEO. You start with creating a really good paper trail.

• 11:42Speaker 01

  And then if that doesn't work, you appeal to a manager, not immediately to the CEO. Because once you go to the CEO's office, that's like spending, that's, that's your last resort. That's the, the nuclear option. You want to go, go through all the channels, but that does, that does work. I've seen it work.

• 12:01Mike Carruthers?

  And so with, most complaints probably will never get that far. When people have a problem, usually it seems it can be worked out most of the time at a fairly low level. But does it really make any difference whether you do it by phone or by email, or they might have a chat thing on their website? Or, or as long as you're talking to somebody, at least the conversation continues?

• 12:27Speaker 01

  It depends on the company that you're working with, but you, you want to stay off the phone if possible. And the reason for that is there's no record of a phone conversation unless you're recording it. In some states, that's not legal.

• 12:40Speaker 01

  The other thing is chats. Okay, so chats do work better, but some companies disable the safe chat feature because they don't want you to see the entire chat. So you end up having to take screenshots because once you exit the screen, that chat is completely erased. The best option really is either an email because you can keep that thread or even a, sending a paper letter or, or maybe a UPS or FedEx or something like that, so that there's a record of it. But you want to create a paper trail. The best, the, the one that I always recommend is email. It's just, it works the best. And if you have something in writing, it's really difficult to refute that.

• 13:24Mike Carruthers?

  Yeah, right. When people complain, when they get upset about something, something doesn't work or, you know, whatever, they often, it seems, just want to complain, but they don't ask for anything. They, they just want to bitch. And, and my guess is that if you don't ask for something, how can they give it to you?

• 13:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're right.

• 13:50Speaker 01

  I think people get really frustrated and, and they, they lose their sense of perspective and they want to make someone else feel bad because they feel bad. It's just a very normal human emotion. The, the thing that I recommend when dealing with a consumer complaint is to take a deep breath, count to 10. And if you're going to send an email, let someone who is not involved in the dispute have a look at it first, just to make sure that you, you've taken out all the all uppercase, you know, the yelling and the, the salty language and the threats. And only then, and only then, send it.

• 14:33Speaker 01

  Because you, you really don't want, you know, you talk about failure of consumer complaints. So one of the things that really leads to failure is if you, if you just, this morning I was just reading a consumer complaint where someone had said, "I hate you. I hope you get cancer and die."

• 14:53Mike Carruthers?

  God.

• 14:55Speaker 01

  I, I'm not making this up. I guarantee you that complaint is not going to go anywhere. It's going to, people are just going to throw it directly into the digital trash can.

• 15:07Mike Carruthers?

  Right. And probably have a good laugh because I mean, here is, whoever's wrote it is completely unhinged and, and it's hard to take people seriously when they rant and scream and yell.

• 15:18Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Well, and you really have to be very precise in, in when you send a written complaint. You can't just say, hey, this went bad and I demand compensation. You have to say, here is the rule, your own policy that you violated. And here is how you can make it right. And it has to be a reasonable request. It can't be, you know, the classic one is my, you didn't have the entree I wanted and I demand a seat in first class anywhere you fly. Well, that's not really a reasonable request. So you have to like be a little bit more reasonable with what you're asking and think

• 16:02Speaker 01

  about how is, what kind of compensation could they offer me? Maybe it's going to be some points or even just an apology sometimes is enough.

• 16:12Mike Carruthers?

  Well, I have several more questions I want to ask you about this whole world of customer service and we'll do that right after this. A big thank you to today's sponsor, Vinted. I think most of us have what I call someday clothes. I'll wear that someday. That'll fit better someday. Someday I'll have a place to wear that. Meanwhile, it's been hanging in the closet for three years. Vinted offers another possibility. Sell it. Every day, people can sell clothes they're no longer wearing and make some extra money. And they've made the process pretty painless. Take what you don't wear, list it on Vinted. Listing is quick and simple.

• 16:56Mike Carruthers?

  And when an item sells, Vinted creates the prepaid shipping label for you. And importantly, there are no seller fees on Vinted. So when you sell something, you keep everything you earn. I like this whole idea because instead of clothes just taking up space, somebody else gets to wear them and you get some money out of the deal. Your closet looks better too. I mean, everybody wins, even the closet. So maybe it's time to stop waiting for someday. Download the Vinted app for free and start listing with no seller fees. So you keep everything you earn.

• 17:38Speaker 04

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• 18:08Mike Carruthers?

  We're talking about getting better customer service from the companies we do business with. My guest is consumer advocate Christopher Elliott. He is a syndicated columnist and he has a newsletter called Elliott Confidential and a new podcast too. So Christopher, we were talking about like people ranting, not asking for anything, just saying how upset they are. But I also think people are sometimes reluctant to ask because they don't know what to ask and, and maybe they wouldn't be asking enough. And maybe they should ask for more.

• 18:43Speaker 01

  That's a fair point. You really have to do your research and this is where, you know, just a little basic searching or consulting with Gemini or Claude can help. What's the most reasonable compensation? We have forums too, where people are happy to answer that question. If you go to elliotconfidential.com/community, we have a forum there and we have a lot of advocates, volunteers who would just want to help answer. So we're, we would be happy to tell you if you're out of line. But, but yeah, it's, you don't want to say nothing because then they're going to give you nothing.

• 19:18Mike Carruthers?

  What are some of the other ways that people trip themselves up because of what they say or who they talk to or, or anything that, that you've come across that people are really sabotaging their own efforts because they're too emotional or whatever?

• 19:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, we've, we've already talked about the emotions that I have so many great anecdotes. I won't bore you with them, but I, I think one of the things that people do that they shouldn't do is wait. You know, they, they have a bad experiences and they say, well, when I get home, I'm going to write to the CEO. And the best thing to do is, is actually to ask while you're right there on the scene. Because a lot of times employees are empowered to help you.

• 20:07Speaker 01

  So just as an example, if you're, you know, if you're staying at a hotel and something goes wrong, let's say the ice machine broke down and you, you really like ice. You know, you can talk to someone at the front desk and say, hey, you know, this is an amenity that I want. Usually it's like the pool or something like that. And you know, the pool's out of order or the gym isn't, is locked. And they're often authorized to do things like offer you a voucher for maybe a drink or a meal. And that, that is often enough to make the problem go away.

• 20:42Mike Carruthers?

  What do you do, when you're told, "I'm sorry, sir, that's our policy." It seems like a brick wall, like, "Well, there's nothing I can do. That's our policy."

• 20:53Speaker 01

  That's happened to me, and it's happened to a lot of my readers. I think that the first thing that you want to do is to say, "Hey, could I take a look at that policy?" You know, don't be mean about it, but just say, "Okay, I'd like to know what the policy actually is." And sometimes, when you read the policy and you reflect on it, you realize that that's not actually the policy, that's their interpretation of the policy. And if you can do that, sometimes their whole attitude will change. They'll be like, "Well, you know, let me see if I can help you out here," or something like that, because they don't want to get dragged into a big discussion about the policy. And, you know, sometimes the policy is wrong, too. This has happened to us a lot in our

• 21:36Speaker 01

  advocacy, is that policy will conflict with state or federal law. And when that happens, having the law on your side really does make a big difference. And when you appeal your case to someone at a higher level and say, "Here's your policy, and here it is in writing, and here's what state law says about this, can you help me?" And usually, they are very helpful at that point.

• 22:01Mike Carruthers?

  Not to put you on the spot, but can you give me an example of that?

• 22:04Speaker 01

  This happens most often when we have an airline that has a cancellation. And so the ticket agents and gate agents are incentivized to give away vouchers for a future flight when a flight is not operating. There is a federal law that just went into effect that says that there has to be an automatic refund offered in cash. So they have to pay you actual money if they cancel a flight. And what we've noticed is that some airlines have still decided that they're going to follow their own policies, which is to, you know, offer a flight voucher when there's a cancellation.

• 22:48Mike Carruthers?

  Do you get a sense, as I think many people do, that for many companies, you know, it's like that recording, "Your call is very important to us, so we're going to make you wait for 45 minutes to answer it." Do companies put roadblocks in deliberately, or it just seems that way?

• 23:12Speaker 01

  It seems that way because it is that way. There actually have been cases where companies have been caught trying to extend wait times or intentionally disconnect their customers. If you're still calling a company for something, you're not doing it correctly. Companies don't want to hear from you. And they do want you to engage their AI chatbots or to email them, but they don't want to hear from you. So they're going to make it as difficult as possible to get someone on the phone. It's very unfortunate. It's unfortunately going to get worse, I think, before it gets better.

• 23:47Mike Carruthers?

  There are companies, though, that are renowned for good customer service, you know, Costco, Nordstrom. I mean, there are companies that make it a priority, and when they do, it seems to be rewarded with loyalty that other stores don't get.

• 24:04Speaker 01

  I have a list that I keep of companies that we get lots of complaints about and ones that always resolve the problems, often before they're asked. It's called the Red List and the Green List. You can find it on our site, Elliott.org. And yeah, there's a couple of companies that are real standouts. You mentioned Costco, that's one, and where they just always default to the right thing. If something goes wrong, they're going to try to make it right, and they're going to really bend over backward to do it. And I think everyone kind of knows what those companies are, you know, there's Costco, there's, for example, in hotels, there's Carlton, and in airlines, there's Southwest. And they are always going to, if you have a problem, they're going to try to fix it

• 24:49Speaker 01

  before it gets to be a big problem, or even before you have a chance to ask, which is great.

• 24:56Mike Carruthers?

  And you would think they wouldn't do that unless they saw a payoff to doing that.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  You would think so. I think that it has a lot to do with corporate culture. They do it because it's the right thing to do. And that ends up helping them on the bottom line.

• 25:14Mike Carruthers?

  Well, I would think that if you want to get good customer service, particularly if you have a complaint and you're calling a company, it just seems to make all the sense in the world to be polite, because those people get yelled at and screamed at. And when you call and you're nice and friendly, it seems like that's going to get a better result than screaming and yelling.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  Well, that's why people don't last very long in those jobs, and why they're trying to outsource them to chatbots, because you can't offend a chatbot. But a human, yeah. You go home and you cry into your pillow when you have a bad day. And, you know, and people don't deserve that. I talked to someone who works in customer service this morning, and she said, "Yeah, things are really bad. People don't have a problem making threats and yelling at me." And it's horrible. So being polite makes you stand out, makes them want to help you.

• 26:12Mike Carruthers?

  Yeah, I think that's probably the best advice of all, is, you know, be civil and watch what happens, and be a jerk and watch what happens.

• 26:23Speaker 01

  Yes. Where we are right now as a country and as consumers is that we really don't seem to have any problems screaming and yelling and ranting and raving at customer service agents. And I think that that's one of the big reasons for it's like a vicious cycle where someone, a company will tighten the policy, and then consumers will get upset and start yelling, and then it gets worse and worse and worse. And it has to change at some point, and I hope it does.

• 26:55Mike Carruthers?

  Well, as somebody who deals with customer service and consumer complaints all the time, I appreciate the insight. And if you'd like to get more information about Christopher's newsletter, Elliott Confidential, and all the other work that he does, as well as his podcast, there's a link to Elliott.org in the show notes. It's Elliott.org, and there's two L's and there's two T's in Elliott. Christopher, thanks for being here.

• 27:20Speaker 01

  Mike, it was a pleasure, and please let me know if there's anything else I can do.

• 27:24Speaker 05

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• 28:27Mike Carruthers?

  It's hard to imagine getting through a day without using some kind of remote control. You unlock your car with one, you change the TV with one, you may use one to open your garage door, adjust the temperature, or turn off the lights. And now, with Alexa and Siri, you don't even need buttons. Your voice has become the remote control. Yet for something we use constantly, remote controls are surprisingly strange. Why are they often loaded with buttons nobody uses or even knows what they do? Why are some so complicated, you practically need instructions just to watch television? And why do some

• 29:09Mike Carruthers?

  people call the TV remote a clicker when it doesn't click? The story of the remote control is a curious one, and here to tell it is Caitlin Benson Allot. She is a professor of English and Film and Media Studies at Georgetown University and author of a book called Remote Control. Hi, Caitlin, welcome to Something You Should Know.

• 29:32Speaker 02

  Hi, Mike. Thanks for having me.

• 29:34Mike Carruthers?

  Sure. Well, it seems that remote control is one of those inevitable inventions. It had to have been invented. But is the story traceable back to a true beginning?

• 29:46Speaker 02

  As for the first remote control device, that was actually 1898 by the famous inventor Nikola Tesla. He was at a World's Fair, and he showed his audience a little boat that was attached to a wire and how he could move the boat around a pond without actually touching the boat itself. And that might sound pretty boring, but it was very interesting to the US military, which was in the midst of the Spanish-American War. And so the idea

• 30:26Speaker 02

  of being able to send boats, or tanks, or planes out into battle without actually having to put any soldiers on them, that was really intriguing.

• 30:39Mike Carruthers?

  I'll bet. And do you have a sense of, like, what are some of the first things that were remote-controlled besides that?

• 30:49Speaker 02

  Sure. So within the houses of most Americans, maybe we should actually say most wealthy Americans, the first way remote controls entered was attached to radio receivers. Back in the 1920s, radio receivers were the size of a kitchen cabinet. They were furniture proper. And this radio manufacturer named Colster got the idea that perhaps their wealthier clients didn't want to have to get up out of their easy chairs or walk away from their

• 31:31Speaker 02

  tea tables to change the station of their radios. So in 1929, they introduced this box, it's about the size of a box of chocolates today, on the end of a very thick 20-foot cable. And that was the first remote control.

• 31:54Mike Carruthers?

  And I imagine the big innovation that made remote controls much cooler was the ability to transmit through the air, because if it's on a wire, it's still plugged in. And I remember my grandfather used to have a TV when I was a kid. He had a remote control, but there was a wire running across the living room from the TV to the remote control that I'm sure people would trip on, because, you know, that's the only way you could get the signal from here to there.

• 32:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, I bet your grandfather had a Zenith Lazy Bones, which was one of the first television remotes, the first really popular television remote, and it was wired. But, you know, to his credit, he was an early adopter, and that thing would have cost about $300 in today's money on top of the TV set. You're right, though, that wireless remote control was a huge step forward, although manufacturers didn't exactly know how to make it work at first. They tried full spectrum light, what was basically like a flashlight that you would

• 33:13Speaker 02

  aim at different corners of your TV set. They tried ultrasonic tuning, these tiny little tuning forks inside of a plastic remote control box that humans couldn't hear, but actually dogs could. That's where the term "the clicker" comes from. And it wasn't until the early 1980s that we got the kind of wireless remote controls that we know today, which work on infrared LEDs.

• 33:44Mike Carruthers?

  I remember another TV in our house many years ago that had a wireless remote control, but it made a very distinctive click. It was, and I assume that the noise itself was part of how it worked. It had, the TV had to hear that click, right?

• 34:06Speaker 02

  Right, well, sort of. So the TV had to hear this ultrasonic frequency that is actually beyond the range of human hearing. That's why I said dogs can hear it, but people can't. I guess I should have said television and dogs can hear it, but people can't. What we heard was a tiny little hammer inside the box hitting the tuning fork that would release this ultrasonic frequency. But that was a real confusion. People thought that little click noise was what was changing their television channel.

• 34:47Speaker 02

  And that's why, for a certain generation of Americans, remote controls have always been and will always be the clicker.

• 34:56Mike Carruthers?

  Yeah, people still use that phrase, even though they're silent. The people still say, "Where's the, have you seen the clicker? I can't find the clicker."

• 35:03Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 35:04Mike Carruthers?

  It's weird how that is stuck when there's no clicking.

• 35:07Speaker 02

  It's really interesting, right? Now we have the sort of silent, soft buttons of post-Tivo remotes, those universal remotes that came with your cable box, or maybe your television set, or we just have the track pads on our Apple remotes. Although I've noticed that the little, the four little buttons on my Apple remote actually do make a tiny clicking noise when I use them.

• 35:39Mike Carruthers?

  But maybe that's just for you, so you know you pushed it, rather than for the receiving device.

• 35:45Speaker 02

  Exactly, just like back in the 1950s.

• 35:49Mike Carruthers?

  And as I recall, that clicking remote that I remember, it only did one thing. It only rotated the channels in order. You couldn't do the volume, you couldn't go backwards, you couldn't even turn the TV on with it. All it did was rotate through the channels 2 through 13.

• 36:09Speaker 02

  Correct. So it took a long time for inventors to find a way to get multiple functions into a remote control. And at first, they assumed that changing the channel would be the thing that people did the most and didn't want to get up for. But what they weren't counting on is that back in the 1950s, most people only got one or two television stations. So changing the channel was less important than, say, muting the television when the advertisements came on.

• 36:52Speaker 02

  Muting TVs was actually the thing that got people excited about remote control in mid-century. And I just want to give a shout out to Howard Manichevitz, as in Manichevitz Wine, same family, who invented a homemade remote control called the Blaboff in 1950, that eventually got Zenith and RCA and the rest of the big manufacturers to be like, "Okay, okay, we get it. You hate advertisements. You want to be able to change the volume and turn off the television from the couch."

• 37:33Mike Carruthers?

  I imagine, I think it was in the 70s, when we had the ability to record television shows off the TV with a VCR, having the ability to record a show and then rewind it, fast-forward it, and perhaps most importantly, pause it while you're watching it, that had to be a big moment in the world of remote controls.

• 37:58Speaker 02

  That's really true. When VCRs came out in the mid-1970s, the first function a remote control had was a pause button. In fact, Sony's first VCR remote only had a pause button, because having that control over time, stopping the flow of the show so you could go to the bathroom or answer the phone, that was mind-blowing to people.

• 38:28Mike Carruthers?

  So at some point, after remote controls got fairly sophisticated, came the universal remote, which had 400 buttons on it that nobody could ever figure out how to use, or certainly I never did. I mean, they were so complicated that it was just easier to use the remote that came with the TV and have three or four remotes on the table than try to figure out this thing.

• 38:53Speaker 02

  Totally. You know, Steve Wozniak of Apple was actually the first person to offer a universal remote control, which you could program to do any function you wanted to. But it really wasn't popular, because it was so complicated, and people just wanted that simple pause, change channels, fast-forward, mute functionality. So you might be wondering then, why does your cable remote or your television remote have so many buttons you never use? No one ever even explained to you?

• 39:35Speaker 02

  Those are actually called vestigial buttons, and remote control designers know you're not using them. They know that the look of all of those buttons on the remote makes you feel powerful, makes you feel like you could do whatever you wanted with your technology and your media. But in fact, studies have shown, and the engineers know this too, that the more buttons there are on a remote control, the fewer people use.

• 40:08Mike Carruthers?

  And so look at the Apple remote for the Apple TV, is, what, four buttons? And is it clean and easy to use? And it doesn't buy into that idea that you need 400 buttons on your remote?

• 40:23Speaker 02

  And this is one of Apple's real strengths as a company: design, and especially simplified, user-focused design. But the only reason those Apple remotes work for us is because a lot of the functionality that we need has been transferred over onto that horrible grid of apps that comes up every time you open your Apple TV.

• 40:52Mike Carruthers?

  Right, so you're just using arrows to do things on the screen, rather than actually do them on the remote?

• 41:00Speaker 02

  Bingo. On a television remote, you might have pressed 1-3 for Channel 13 to watch Murder She Wrote or whatever you were looking for. But now you're going to use those little directional buttons to work through a different app after a different app, looking for who's got Murder She Wrote and how you can play it most easily.

• 41:25Mike Carruthers?

  So I'm wondering why, of the infinite number of shows you could have picked, you picked Murder She Wrote?

• 41:32Speaker 02

  Murder She Wrote is really popular among film and television professors, along with Golden Girls and Columbo. I'm not sure what it is, but we just love those shows.

• 41:47Mike Carruthers?

  Okay, that's fair. So now, here's the next problem. So we simplify the remote, so you've got like an Apple TV remote that's just got a couple of buttons, and it's very thin and small, whereas the old remotes were big and had lots of buttons. But now the Apple remote is so small and thin, it's easy to lose it in the couch cushions or whatever, where it wasn't so easy to lose the old remotes.

• 42:12Speaker 02

  That's a really good point, and mine also goes missing all of the time. It slides between couch cushions, it like disappears under books and magazines. And there is a precedent for that, actually. In the 1980s, there was this fad for secondary remotes, things you'd go buy in the store that were not the remote your television came with, that were simpler and easier to use and maybe more fun than the remote control you actually got. And one of the most popular versions of those was about the size and almost as thin as

• 42:56Speaker 02

  a credit card, and even though it looked cool, people hated it, because it got lost so easily. Ironically, Apple has recreated that exact problem. And it's really interesting to wonder why they don't want to change that problem.

• 43:19Mike Carruthers?

  Well, because probably when you fix one problem, you probably create another one. So, you know, you've got to decide which problem you can live with.

• 43:29Speaker 02

  Exactly. And that's actually a really profound pattern in the history of remote controls. Remotes often produce the problems that they purport to solve. So, for example, we've talked about muting commercials and changing volume levels up and down. Well, one of the things remote controls have done for us is allow us to sit further away from our television sets. I mean, think about it. You wouldn't want to be across an open floor plan living room from your TV if you had to get up every time you wanted to change apps on the Apple TV.

• 44:13Speaker 02

  So, we turn our televisions up louder because they're further away, and then we need remote controls to lower the volume when it starts to shake the walls or someone actually, God forbid, wants to talk to us in real life.

• 44:30Mike Carruthers?

  And so now, things can be done remotely. Like, you know, you can fly a plane. You see, you know, the military can fly a drone remotely. Is that an evolution of the same technology? Or is that an altogether different technology?

• 44:49Speaker 02

  That's an altogether different technology. But the principle, if we go back to thinking about Nikola Tesla and that World's Fair, the principle is the same. The first remote controls were designed for use in war. So, in a way, military drones are actually a more traditional version of remote control than the little boxes that are cluttering up your living room.

• 45:19Mike Carruthers?

  And so, for remote controls to work and to be able to program your TV with this remote control, there must be, there must have been a convention where everybody sat down and said, "These are the standards for remote controls so that we can all work together."

• 45:35Speaker 02

  If only. So, basically, all of these electronics manufacturers want you to use their product. And so, it's in their best interest if their remote controls don't work with their competitors' devices. So, for example, my Apple TV remote won't work on my Blu-ray player, right? And the Blu-ray player remote won't work on my television set. There used to be this trend in the late 80s, early 90s of companies like Mitsubishi and

• 46:20Speaker 02

  Sony selling these universal remotes that they promised would control your TV, your VCR, your stereo system, the whole multimedia setup in your house, provided that you bought all of your components from Mitsubishi or from Sony. Turns out, people don't actually work that way, though. We tend to buy what's cheapest, or looks coolest, or fits on our wall. So, that vision of total control never really panned out.

• 47:00Mike Carruthers?

  I know you wrote the book a few years ago, but is there anything new in the world of remote controls or on the horizon that's coming?

• 47:08Speaker 02

  So, when I wrote the book, I got a lot of pushback because Google Home and Alexa were really new devices. And people were like, "Oh, you wrote a book about remote controls? Remote controls are over. It's all about voice control now." And I said, "Well, actually, if you think about it, you may be talking to Alexa, but you're telling her to do stuff on a different device, right? You're telling your Google Home to check the weather using your computer. It's not happening in the Google Home." And so, really, those are remote controls.

• 47:51Speaker 02

  And you can see that in the Apple remote, too, right? The voice recognition, the microphone, is in the remote control. And so, I remember once at a book reading, someone asked me, "Well, you know, why? Why would they want to put the microphones in remote controls instead of in the unit itself?" And I asked, "Well, how many times have you lost your remote control in the last month? Did you ever get so far that you thought you were gonna have to buy a new one?" So, I don't think remote controls are going anywhere.

• 48:33Speaker 02

  They may produce the problems that they purport to solve, but they're doing a lot of favors, not just for us, but for the manufacturers as well.

• 48:45Mike Carruthers?

  Well, you think about how many times you use a remote control, and yet, nobody ever really thinks about it or knows much about how they came to be. So, I really appreciate you coming on to explain it. Caitlin Benson-Allott has been my guest. She's a professor of English and Film and Media Studies at Georgetown, and she's author of the book, Remote Control. And there's a link to that book in the show notes. Caitlin, thanks. This was interesting.

• 49:10Speaker 02

  All right. Super. Thank you so much.

• 49:13Mike Carruthers?

  You've probably been told that the reason your fingers get wrinkly in a bathtub is because the skin absorbs the water and swells. But that's not really what's happening. Those wrinkles are actually created by your nervous system. When your hands or feet stay wet for a while, blood vessels beneath the skin constrict, pulling the skin downward and creating those familiar grooves. In fact, doctors discovered decades ago that fingers with certain types of nerve damage don't normally wrinkle in water. So, why would your body deliberately give you pruney fingers?

• 49:54Mike Carruthers?

  Well, one fascinating explanation is that wrinkles work a little like the tread on a tire, channeling water away and giving you a better grip on wet objects. Experiments have actually found that people with wrinkled fingertips can handle wet objects faster than people with smooth fingertips. So, those ugly bathtub fingers may actually be a feature, not a flaw. And that is something you should know. You know, as much as we like to promote this podcast and find new ways to get listeners, nobody can get a new listener as well as you can. As a regular listener to this podcast, people will listen to you and give this a try, and we would appreciate it.

• 50:37Mike Carruthers?

  So, please, share the podcast with someone you know. I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know.

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