Selects: How Foreign Accent Syndrome Works

Foreign accent syndrome isn't when your mom talks funny when she goes abroad. It's an actual condition where people wake up one day with an entirely different accent, usually from some kind of head trauma. Learn all about this decidedly rare affliction in this classic episode. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 1:06Speaker 03

  Good afternoon, Kabda. It's Chuck here on a Saturday and I'm going to pick a selection called How Foreign Accent Syndrome Works. No idea what this is about, but it's from March 28, 2017. And I hope you enjoy it. Good day.

• 1:30Speaker 00

  Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

• 1:39Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry's here as always. So it's Stuff You Should Know. Stuff You Should Know.

• 1:50Speaker 03

  You should have said that in a British accent.

• 1:53Josh Clark?

  It's Stuff You Should Know, eh? How's that?

• 1:57Speaker 03

  It was great. You're a regular Rich Little.

• 2:03Josh Clark?

  Remember the Arrested Development little subplot where Charlize Theron was thought to be a British spy?

• 2:11Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. What was, uh?

• 2:13Josh Clark?

  For British eyes only.

• 2:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, but what was, um, the name of her character?

• 2:18Josh Clark?

  Mr. F.

• 2:19Speaker 03

  Mr. F?

• 2:20Josh Clark?

  That's right.

• 2:20Speaker 03

  That's right. I knew I had some, like, they said that every time, right?

• 2:24Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:25Speaker 03

  It was pretty funny. She's great.

• 2:27Josh Clark?

  Yeah, she was.

• 2:28Speaker 03

  Pretty lady.

• 2:29Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:29Speaker 03

  Funny, smart.

• 2:30Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 2:31Speaker 03

  Good actor.

• 2:32Josh Clark?

  What else?

• 2:33Speaker 03

  That's all I got on her.

• 2:35Josh Clark?

  She can macrame.

• 2:36Speaker 03

  Oh, really?

• 2:37Josh Clark?

  I don't know. I just assumed.

• 2:39Speaker 03

  Oh, okay.

• 2:42Speaker 03

  This is off to a great start.

• 2:47Josh Clark?

  It is. It's unusual, odd even, you could say, that you suggested I say the intro in a British accent. Because we're talking about foreign accents today, Chuck.

• 2:58Speaker 03

  That's right. It was coy.

• 3:02Josh Clark?

  I see. Now it makes sense.

• 3:04Speaker 03

  Yes, and we're specifically not talking about, um, there's a thing sometimes that certain people do when they meet someone with a, an accent different than their own.

• 3:17Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 3:17Speaker 03

  Where they accidentally, or sometimes purposely, adopt it momentarily.

• 3:25Josh Clark?

  Yes, it's called code switching.

• 3:28Speaker 03

  My mom's done this before.

• 3:31Speaker 03

  That I remember it happened when I was a kid. My brother and I thought it was so funny.

• 3:35Josh Clark?

  Yeah?

• 3:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, and it seems like it's usually apparent of an embarrassed child.

• 3:41Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 3:44Speaker 03

  Is there an explanation behind it, or?

• 3:46Josh Clark?

  Yeah, yeah, so, um, so this is, from what I understand, this is the point, right? So our accents are extremely personal. They're part of, like, us individually, but they also signal our membership in different groups, right? So like, a farmer's gonna talk differently from a stockbroker, and a farmer from, uh, Georgia is gonna talk a lot differently than a stockbroker from, uh, Portland, Oregon, right?

• 4:13Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 4:14Josh Clark?

  Because that's the other stock market seat.

• 4:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 4:16Josh Clark?

  You thought I was gonna say New York?

• 4:18Speaker 03

  I did.

• 4:20Josh Clark?

  So when we, when we code switch, when we meet other people and take on their, their way of talking, it's called code switching. And I think it's a way of signaling, hey, I, we have something in common. I don't want you to be distracted by-

• 4:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. It's a welcoming thing.

• 4:38Josh Clark?

  Yeah, my, my overalls with no shirt on are distracting enough. I don't want you to be distracted by my accent, too. So I think it is a way of saying like, hey, I'm, I'm, I'm, we have something in common. The thing is, accents are such a part of group identity, that if you do that in front of some other members of your group, whether it's your family, or your friends, or whatever-

• 5:00Speaker 03

  They're gonna tease you.

• 5:01Josh Clark?

  They are gonna tease you, guaranteed. And one of the reasons why is because what they're doing consciously or otherwise, is maintaining the borders of their own group's identity.

• 5:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:12Josh Clark?

  They're saying, eh, don't put on airs, don't think you're fancy, don't think you're just like that guy. You're one of us. And, and making fun of somebody who adopts someone else's accent is a way of doing that. It's a way of maintaining group divisions and borders. Where really, when you do kind of adopt someone else's accent, I think one of the things that you are doing is trying to make the foreigner, the stranger, feel more comfortable. And having met your mom, I guarantee that's what she was doing.

• 5:40Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, I just remember, the only one I remember specifically, and you know, you just have these random childhood moments that sort of stick with you, was, uh, we were in Florida, and we were talking with, uh, an Irish woman, I believe. She may have been from England, but I think she was Irish. And the other thing, too, is, you know,

• 6:02Speaker 03

  I don't, I don't think my mom had probably talked to a lot of Irish people at that point. You know, she's from West Tennessee, they moved to Georgia. We didn't have Irish people all over the place. She wasn't super well-traveled back then, although she is much more now. So it was probably a bit novel to her. And I remember very specifically, the woman said something about going to Disney, uh, instead of Disney World. And my mom said, she got kind of proper, and she says, you know, we haven't been to Disney yet. And I remember my brother and I just thought that was so funny, instead of saying Disney World.

• 6:33Josh Clark?

  Did you guys make fun of her in front of the woman?

• 6:35Speaker 03

  No, I don't think so. We may have laughed a little, um- Under our breath, but I mean, I don't think we, I don't think we even teased her. I'm teasing her now a bit.

• 6:45Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 6:46Speaker 03

  But I don't think like we made fun of her really. I think we just kind of, like my brother and I want to do, very quietly looked at each other and in that way that brothers do.

• 6:56Josh Clark?

  Right, and then talk to each other like the kids in Escape from Witch Mountain.

• 7:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, or they telepathic.

• 7:01Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 7:03Speaker 03

  But it's funny, I was listening to the great Judge John Hodgman podcast.

• 7:07Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:07Speaker 03

  With our pal John.

• 7:09Josh Clark?

  Class act.

• 7:10Speaker 03

  Jesse Thorne, bailiff Jesse. And they had an actual case a few weeks ago that was very funny, where this, this mom

• 7:18Speaker 03

  does this on purpose. She's a trained actor and loves to put on accents when she goes to places. And the daughter was just, she took her to the internet court and was just like, "Stop doing this." Like, "You've got to stop doing this." And the mom's whole thing, she was very, just fun and whimsical and having a lot of fun with it. So it was really hard to, to rule against her. But I think Hodgman ultimately did rule against her.

• 7:49Josh Clark?

  He's tough but fair.

• 7:51Speaker 03

  Well, I think his whole thing was like, you know, I, I think he ruled partially in her favor, like, "You gotta let them know where you're from and you can't do it to like waiters and service people." Because their job is to like, take your dumb jokes and, and have a stiff upper lip about it. And it just kind of makes their job harder if they think maybe you're making fun of them and,

• 8:14Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 8:15Speaker 03

  You know, like you may not realize the unintended consequence of this is somebody may feel uncomfortable that they have to put up with this.

• 8:23Josh Clark?

  Wow, that was, it took a really serious turn at the end there.

• 8:26Speaker 03

  No, it did. I mean, you know, that's what's great about that show is it's, they're funny cases, but he adjudicates seriously, I think that's why it works.

• 8:33Josh Clark?

  And then Jesse always shoots his gun off at the end.

• 8:35Speaker 03

  Yeah. Bee-haw. So anyway, I just thought it was pretty weird that this article came up and then that episode had just aired. But that's different than what we were talking about.

• 8:47Josh Clark?

  Totally.

• 8:48Speaker 03

  Like I started saying, this is not that at all. This is a legitimate, super rare, this reminded me of alien hand syndrome and its rarity.

• 8:58Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 8:59Speaker 03

  Because I've seen different numbers, but the most I've seen is about 150 described official cases of foreign accent syndrome.

• 9:09Josh Clark?

  Right. That's super rare, for sure.

• 9:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:12Josh Clark?

  And what makes it different from somebody taking on the affect or dialect or accent of somebody else?

• 9:18Speaker 03

  Someone taking the piss.

• 9:20Josh Clark?

  Right. This is, this is where you, you can't stop. It's involuntary.

• 9:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:25Josh Clark?

  And, you know, it sounds weird and exotic and you just want to like poke the person who's doing that in the neck to be like, what are you doing there? But i- if you really start to dig into the actual cases, it's sad in a lot of, a lot of cases.

• 9:40Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 9:41Josh Clark?

  Because again, your accent, what you sound like makes up a part of your personality. So if you are, if it, if it changes on you involuntarily, it can be quite traumatic for some people. You could have an identity crisis of sorts.

• 9:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, so I guess we should just go ahead and talk about a couple of cases so people know what we're talking about. The first one mentioned in our own article is really interesting for a few reasons. And it's the most recent case that's documented. Oh, I'm sorry, it's not the most recent, but it is fairly recent. A woman named Lisa Alamea, she had jaw surgery because of an overbite. And then when she came out of surgery, even though she was from Texas and had never been to England, she spoke with a British accent.

• 10:24Josh Clark?

  And she's like, right, bloody hell.

• 10:28Speaker 03

  And.

• 10:28Josh Clark?

  Wait, wait, I, I need our British listeners to write in and tell me how, how good my British accent is, okay?

• 10:36Speaker 03

  Well, I'm known on the show for doing the bad accent, so I'm glad you're taking up.

• 10:39Josh Clark?

  No, yours are good.

• 10:40Speaker 03

  I don't know.

• 10:41Josh Clark?

  Mine are.

• 10:42Speaker 03

  They, they verge on. Decent at times.

• 10:45Josh Clark?

  Well, they're cartoonish and stereotypical, but they're really, really good cartoonish stereotypical versions of accents.

• 10:51Speaker 03

  Uh, so she woke up, had that accent, and her husband and three kids thought it was a joke. Um, she had only been outside the country to go to Mexico, and it was a real thing called foreign accent syndrome.

• 11:04Josh Clark?

  Yeah, she'd never been to England. She apparently, probably had seen British people on TV kind of thing, but her case actually is the opposite of what I was saying. She was apparently quite shy before, and now she has something to talk about, a conversation opener, I guess, and she's a little more chatty than before.

• 11:26Speaker 03

  Interesting.

• 11:27Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it is. It's the opposite of some other people who have really experienced a crisis as a result. She's like, "Well, I sound British now. I guess I should talk more than before."

• 11:37Speaker 03

  So she sounds like a drunk, cockney chimney sweep.

• 11:40Josh Clark?

  Pretty much, and she does sound cockney to me.

• 11:42Speaker 03

  Oh, really? I didn't hear, I didn't see this one on YouTube.

• 11:44Josh Clark?

  So, uh, yeah, we should say, you know, this is kind of like optical illusions. It's one thing to talk about it. You need to actually go see and hear these people talking.

• 11:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:54Josh Clark?

  Um, if you just look up Lisa Alamiya, A-L-A-M-I-A, and you will find plenty of interviews with her. Um, and she's, she's, like you said, fairly recent. There's one that's quite a famous case, maybe the most famous, because it was the one that put foreign accent syndrome on the map, even though it was before the term was coined.

• 12:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, this one had a, had a much darker turn, um, because it was during World War II, a Norwegian woman named Astrid suffered injury, um, and the ironies here are really sad. She suffered a brain injury from shrapnel from a German bomb in a bombing raid, and then when she came to, she had a German accent.

• 12:38Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 12:38Speaker 03

  Very not fun for her.

• 12:41Josh Clark?

  No, because the Germans were occupying Norway at the time, right?

• 12:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:45Josh Clark?

  So people she didn't really know were like, "Oh, hey, German spy."

• 12:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:50Josh Clark?

  "You want some milk? No milk for you."

• 12:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, she was shunned. Um, she couldn't even speak German, but she had that accent and was, uh... Obviously, very distraught by this, and she went to a neurologist named Yorg Erman Monrad Krone.

• 13:07Josh Clark?

  Nice job.

• 13:09Speaker 03

  It's a great name. And he coined the first term for this, which is dysprocity, which is, prosity is like the tone and rhythm of your speech.

• 13:21Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 13:21Speaker 03

  And the prefix dis, obviously, is like abnormal or ill.

• 13:26Speaker 03

  And that didn't catch on too well.

• 13:28Josh Clark?

  It didn't, but as we'll see, he kind of nailed what the problem was.

• 13:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:34Josh Clark?

  Because, you know, the, the, the non-grammatical parts of speech, the prosity, are what is affected. When you have foreign accent syndrome, you, you have what appears to be a foreign accent, but you're, usually, your vocabulary, your syntax, your grammar, remains unchanged. It's all the little nuances that make up your accent, or your intonation, or the rhythm of your speech that are affected and has changed. So dysprocity is actually like the perfect name for this syndrome.

• 14:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, but foreign accent syndrome is way more catchy, and that,

• 14:09Josh Clark?

  Oh, it's sexy.

• 14:10Speaker 03

  In 1982, a neurologist named Harry Whitaker came up with that. So Whitaker coined it in the 80s. I think 1982 was when he coined that official term.

• 14:21Josh Clark?

  Right, and he, he was a neuro-linguist who did some pretty serious research into foreign accent syndrome. He actually came up with a four-point criteria for diagnosing it. And the number one is that the accent has to be considered by the patient, the people the patient knows, and the researcher, the doctor, to be, to sound like a foreign accent, right?

• 14:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:44Josh Clark?

  Pretty straightforward.

• 14:45Speaker 03

  From what they are.

• 14:47Josh Clark?

  Yeah, well, that's number, number, uh, two. It has to be different from the patient's former prosity.

• 14:53Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 14:54Josh Clark?

  Noticeably different. Number three, it has to be related to central nervous system damage. And this one has come under fire under the last few years. And then four, it can't be related to a patient's ability to speak a foreign language already.

• 15:08Speaker 03

  Right.

• 15:09Josh Clark?

  So, there's actually a condition, it's astounding to me. It's called bilingual aphasia, or there's also polyglot aphasia. And apparently, if you suffer a stroke, or brain injury, or some other trauma or insult to your central nervous system. And you know more than one language, you may completely lose the ability to speak one language and completely retain the ability to speak the other. That's how decentralized our language process is in the brain.

• 15:42Speaker 03

  Well, yeah, because that's one of the factors in foreign accent syndrome is you could, it's not like in a case where you might have a stroke and lose the ability to speak.

• 15:52Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 15:52Speaker 03

  You still can speak in perfect dialect, whatever that dialect is, as far as being, you know, articulate and coherent.

• 16:00Josh Clark?

  Oh, right, right. Yeah, yeah. So you're, you're, yeah, exactly. You're not like slurring your speech. You just sound different and like a foreign person saying the same words would, right?

• 16:11Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:11Josh Clark?

  Oh, gotcha. Okay. So there's this four-point diagnosis criteria that's kind of been deconstructed over the years. The problem with foreign accent syndrome, it's like you said, there's been 100, maybe 150 cases. So it's just totally up in the air as to like, how to diagnose it? What qualifies as it? And we'll talk a little bit about how scientists have dug into it thus far after this break.

• 16:53Speaker 04

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• 18:40Josh Clark?

  So Chuck, foreign accent syndrome, it's kind of all over the place right now, right?

• 18:45Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 18:46Josh Clark?

  You've got Lisa Alamiya, who woke up from jaw surgery with it. Apparently, people who have strokes can can suffer from foreign accent syndrome. And I actually saw one case where your foreign accent syndrome and one patient who suffered a stroke was cured by a second stroke elsewhere in the brain.

• 19:10Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 19:11Josh Clark?

  So we have like, it's very tough to predict what's going to happen when foreign accent syndrome does come about. And, you know, there's been people from Japan who've developed Korean accents. Or there've been people from Scotland who develop South African accents. It's it's kind of everywhere and all over.

• 19:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, you can. One of the other causes, it can be from the onset of MS from multiple sclerosis. This one woman that we'll talk about in more detail suffered from chronic migraines, but had a migraine attack so severe that it spurred this. And we'll get to her, but all of these in a bucket from some sort of trauma or an event are called neurogenic type. And for a long time, they used to think that was the only way. That you could get foreign accent syndrome.

• 20:07Josh Clark?

  Right, because remember that Harry Whittaker 1982 criteria specifically says it has to be related to central nervous system damage.

• 20:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, so there's another kind called psychogenic, also non-organic or functional or psychosomatic, but one of the leading experts said that they prefer psychogenic. He said, because, quote, "This term has the advantage of stating positively based on an exploration of its causes that the disorder is a manifestation of psychological disequilibrium like anxiety, depression, personality disorder, or conversion reaction," end quote.

• 20:45Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 20:47Speaker 03

  And, you know, we're talking about, could be bipolar disorder, it could be some other form of mental illness, and this really kind of rocked, I mean, it's not a huge community studying this, but the people that do are obviously super fascinated by it, and it kind of rocked their world when they found out that someone that had no head injury, no stroke, or anything like that, would, could have something like this.

• 21:10Josh Clark?

  Yeah, so they developed, first was neurogenic, then they developed psychogenic, and then there's actually a third one now, it's mixed, so apparently it can actually be from a psychological issue that possibly could arise from, say, a brain lesion, so it's both of them together.

• 21:26Speaker 03

  Right.

• 21:27Josh Clark?

  Working to create this foreign accent syndrome. And definitely psychogenic, the psychogenic version of foreign accent syndrome differs tremendously from the neurogenic in a lot of ways, and number one is the psychogenic tends to clear up. It accompanies, say, like, a psychotic break, or a manic episode, or something like that, and as the episode wanes, or goes away, or clears up, so too does the foreign accent syndrome. That is not the case with neurogenic. With neurogenic, they have no cure whatsoever, and basically the only treatment that they can come up with is through speech therapy, where a speech-language pathologist basically retrained you to talk the way you did before.

• 22:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's also, the neurogenic is also much more common out of the cases, I think it's about 86% are from some sort of neurological damage.

• 22:21Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 22:22Speaker 03

  What does that leave, 14%? Or unless, I guess, you're accounting for the new super odd one that is, could be both.

• 22:31Josh Clark?

  And one of the more famous cases that kind of demonstrated that psychogenic FAS was an actual thing that happened here in America. There's a woman in her mid-30s who had a history of schizophrenia in her family, and she was brought to the ER after attacking her mom's landlady.

• 22:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, this one's the most recent case, actually.

• 22:51Josh Clark?

  And she, she believed the landlady was practicing voodoo on her, against her, and she attacked the woman. And throughout all this, during this episode, she had taken on a British accent. And taking a family history, they found that, number one, she had schizophrenia in her family. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a result of this incident, but that she had had similar instances before, and during these, she had spoken with a British accent.

• 23:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, I wonder, I didn't see anything in there about her, if she, like, had a, I mean, is it another personality? Is it multiple personality disorder?

• 23:26Josh Clark?

  I don't believe so. That's not what I took from it.

• 23:30Speaker 03

  No, because that would make sense, you know, if you have a, just a British personality that came out, that's violent, maybe, or something.

• 23:37Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Well, I mean, remember, I think we've done one on schizophrenia before, haven't we?

• 23:43Speaker 03

  I don't know, have we?

• 23:43Josh Clark?

  We definitely did one on dissociative personality disorder.

• 23:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:48Josh Clark?

  Which was just absolutely fascinating, but I was, like you, I kind of noticed, like, hey, what about multiple personalities? It doesn't, it seems like something that would be right up that alley.

• 23:59Speaker 03

  I'm sure they've looked into that.

• 24:01Josh Clark?

  But apparently, apparently, that's not part of it.

• 24:04Speaker 03

  Yeah. Another case that I said we were going to get to, this, this one is really weird and super sad. This woman named Sarah Colwell in England, she is the one that had the migraine that set it off. And this one is super odd, because she's an Englishwoman who now has a Chinese accent.

• 24:26Josh Clark?

  I mean, just straight up sounds Chinese.

• 24:30Speaker 03

  And like, broken English Chinese.

• 24:34Josh Clark?

  Right, right. So she sounds like a native, I think Mandarin speaker is probably what we're thinking of, who is speaking English. And if you weren't looking, like you would expect to see, say, maybe like a middle-aged Chinese woman when you looked at the video.

• 24:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 24:55Josh Clark?

  And, no, it's like, I don't know, late to mid 30s Caucasian woman.

• 25:02Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 25:02Josh Clark?

  A native-born English speaker, who, and she's who I was thinking of when I was saying for some people it's a really big problem.

• 25:11Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 25:12Josh Clark?

  Because it's presented a big crisis for her identity. She said that she can't look in the mirror while she's speaking any longer. She just doesn't feel like herself anymore. And it's really hit her hard.

• 25:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, she, her case is really sad. It was, I think, 2010 when she was diagnosed after this migraine incident. And 2015, she couldn't work anymore. And she has, she has a lot more issues going on than just the speech with these migraines that have come on. She's got a whole range of physical problems. She's had to stop work. She's in a wheelchair, even though her limbs completely work. Her brain basically can't tell her limbs to do what they should do.

• 25:54Josh Clark?

  Good lord.

• 25:55Speaker 03

  So.

• 25:55Josh Clark?

  From migraines?

• 25:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, from, I think, these really extreme migraines. I think they even likened it to like having a stroke. They were so severe. So she's had to sell her house. And I think her husband is afflicted with something too. It's just a really, really sad case.

• 26:13Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 26:13Speaker 03

  But, you know, you can, there's all kinds of interviews with her. And it's just so strange to hear that accent coming out of this white lady.

• 26:22Josh Clark?

  It is. And from what I gather, she'd be like, yeah, well, imagine how strange it feels coming out of you.

• 26:28Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 26:29Josh Clark?

  You know?

• 26:29Speaker 03

  And, you know, I saw videos where they would sit down and play her. And before I looked up further that she was having even more troubled times, it seemed like she was getting a little better throughout the interview through therapy, because they were playing her, one of the things they do is they play old recordings of herself, and she would sit down and listen to them and try and mimic it. And which kind of brought up one of my questions is can you even mimic an accent? Like, you know, people can fake an accent. Like, can you even do that? And I didn't get an answer on that. But then you're just mimicking an accent your entire life, too, even if you could.

• 27:08Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 27:08Speaker 03

  You know, so that's problematic on its own.

• 27:10Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 27:11Speaker 03

  But it seemed like she was getting a little bit better in that interview, but apparently not. It's really sad.

• 27:16Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it is. I mean, like, it's bad enough you've got migraines, and then to have a crisis of identity.

• 27:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:21Josh Clark?

  It's, yeah, not fair.

• 27:23Speaker 03

  So, one of the other things that's really troubling is you can't just go to a neurologist and get it cleared up. There are a whole range of doctors that you'll probably see along the way, including a neurologist. You talked about a speech-language pathologist. You might go to a clinical psychologist to deal with the fallout from everything. Maybe a neuropsychologist, maybe a radiologist. You might see, you know, six and eight doctors and still not get anywhere.

• 27:56Josh Clark?

  Right, because it can't do a lot for you. We don't know how to treat strokes very well. And once damage has occurred in the brain, it can be pretty tough, if not impossible, to reverse that damage, right? If it's permanently damaged. So, yeah, the idea that you've now gotten a foreign accent, they're probably like, that's kind of the least of your worries. You just had a massive stroke, or a huge head injury, or something like that. But what it's revealed to them is not that there's this huge mystery. And we have kind of played into it a little bit by not revealing this from the outset. But you, as a patient with foreign accent syndrome,

• 28:39Josh Clark?

  you didn't hit your head and wake up with the foreign accent. It's all in the ear of the beholder. The whole idea that there is a foreign accent syndrome is, the way that it's stated, is false.

• 28:54Josh Clark?

  And we'll talk about that after this break.

• 29:10Speaker 04

  Hey, it's Covino and Rich Davis from Covino and Rich. Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability and it starts with a great deal on an off-road ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's most capable and longest-lasting trucks. Combining power for work, tech for adventures and style in between. Built on reputation for quality and reliability. Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which can mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for more. Toyota, let's go places.

• 29:45Speaker 00

  Hi, it's Kathleen Griffith, co-host of the Unshakeables podcast. Listen in as Ron and Kelly Moore share their story.

• 29:54Speaker 06

  I'm Ron Moore.

• 29:55Speaker 05

  And I'm Kelly Moore. And starting our own business in our 50s was a little scary, but exciting.

• 30:04Speaker 06

  The biggest advantage was our community. The whole thing about business is relationships.

• 30:08Speaker 05

  We'll say team a lot, not just our internal team. It's the team of our vendors, the team of our clients.

• 30:16Speaker 06

  We help the Veterans Resource Center and we give scholarships. I'm doing this for my heart, for my children, for you, for your children's family. I don't want anything back. And I tell a lot of people, don't give back to me, pay it forward.

• 30:30Speaker 05

  If you work to give, you just see the world differently.

• 30:33Speaker 06

  I'm going to help as many people as we can. I can't take it with me.

• 30:37Speaker 00

  To hear more from Ron and Kelly, listen to the Unshakeables wherever you get your podcasts.

• 30:54Josh Clark?

  Okay Chuck, we're back.

• 30:56Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 30:57Josh Clark?

  So I thought I heard you draw in a breath right before we broke.

• 31:00Speaker 03

  I might have been.

• 31:02Josh Clark?

  Did you have something to say?

• 31:03Speaker 03

  I don't know. Yeah, I think I have a little trouble wrapping my head around this whole idea that it's only in the ear of the person because of, you know, that lady clearly has a Chinese accent. It's not, oh, I'm just hearing it that way.

• 31:20Josh Clark?

  So there've actually been studies where they've played a video clip of, or an audio clip of a person with foreign accent syndrome to different people.

• 31:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:30Josh Clark?

  And said, you know, where do you think this person's from? And the same person will get tens of different answers out of tens of different people.

• 31:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't know. I mean, that makes sense in some cases, I think, but I don't see how anyone could hear this woman and say, she sounds British to me.

• 31:50Josh Clark?

  Right. Well, no, no, no. She definitely doesn't sound British, but that's the point. She sounds Chinese, but she's not actually speaking in a Chinese accent. She didn't hit her head and wake up with a Chinese accent. What happened was she got this series of migraines, probably had some sort of stroke, and a region of her brain that controls the really intricate process of prosody, of making your tongue do certain things to intonate an accent, certain words in certain ways that make up your accent and your dialect overall, that got damaged. And so now she can't control it in the way she used to before. It comes out sounding differently. And to you, somebody who has heard people speak in

• 32:33Josh Clark?

  a Chinese accent before, it sounds like a Chinese accent. That's the difference.

• 32:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, I still don't get that. What I do get, though, is... We take second nature, just when we open our mouth, we talk. We don't realize the complex series of events that's going on to make your voice come out the way it does. So, you know, you're, you're, well, in the brain, they think, and again, the mysteries of the brain, they're, they're, what, how you create speech is really complex and involves all kind of areas of the brain, but specifically damaged in the left hemisphere and the cerebral artery, they know a lot of times can cause foreign accent syndrome.

• 33:14Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 33:14Speaker 03

  But when you're speaking, you're using your tongue, you're using your lips, your jaw, your larynx, and the way all these things combine and who you are is gonna make you have, and we should do one on accents, period, but.

• 33:28Josh Clark?

  Agreed.

• 33:29Speaker 03

  It's gonna control how your speech comes out. So, and the, you know, the one example they, they use in here is if, you know, you have a little too much to drink, those, you know, you might lose some of that muscle control and you might slow your words or talk funny or differently.

• 33:44Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 33:45Speaker 03

  So, that's a pretty, pretty basic way of understanding it, but I know vowels are sort of a big deal when it comes to foreign accent syndrome.

• 33:55Josh Clark?

  Yeah, if you, if you say ah instead of a, or you substitute consonants like r for l, right? So, you're, you know, what's that, what were they singing Jingle Bells on, oh no, Deck the Halls?

• 34:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 34:16Josh Clark?

  On A Christmas Story?

• 34:17Speaker 03

  Christmas Story.

• 34:18Josh Clark?

  Fa ra ra ra ra, right? So, if you were a Caucasian English speaker and you damaged your brain in a way that the, the part of your brain responsible for forming Ls now formed Rs instead.

• 34:32Speaker 03

  Right.

• 34:32Josh Clark?

  To other English speakers who'd heard native Chinese speakers, you would sound like you had a Chinese accent because that's what people who speak Chinese do when they're speaking English.

• 34:44Speaker 03

  Right.

• 34:45Josh Clark?

  So, you didn't actually adopt a Chinese accent, you're just creating sounds in the same way that somebody who was a native Chinese speaker would.

• 34:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, I see what they're getting at with all this. To me, it's a little bit splitting hairs.

• 35:04Speaker 03

  I think that's what I'm trying to say.

• 35:05Josh Clark?

  I think the difference is this Chuck, with your accent, your native accent, your native dialect is the result of your exposure to your environment, right? Lifelong, all the people around you, all the stuff you've learned, all the things you've heard, it creates your dialect, right? When you suffer foreign accent syndrome, your dialect, your brain is damaged so that you can't produce that anymore and you're just kind of haphazardly producing something else.

• 35:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:35Josh Clark?

  You don't actually follow... So like if you took Sarah Caldwell's language and had her read a passage from a book.

• 35:46Speaker 03

  Right.

• 35:46Josh Clark?

  And then you had a native Chinese speaker, typical accented Mandarin speaker, read that same passage, it would not be the exact same thing. There'd be all sorts of derivations and deviations from that normal Mandarin accent because Sarah Caldwell's brain was damaged in a certain way that makes it a totally unique accent.

• 36:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, I get that, but that happens within the Mandarin accent between people too.

• 36:13Josh Clark?

  You're not letting this one go, are you?

• 36:14Speaker 03

  I just don't get it.

• 36:15Josh Clark?

  All right.

• 36:16Speaker 03

  One thing I do get is that there's no like, and this is probably what's so frustrating, or one of the things so frustrating is it's not like they wake up with a new cultural identity either.

• 36:26Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 36:27Speaker 03

  I mean, this woman still wants to have her tea and biscuits every afternoon, but when she says that, she says it with, Chuck would call it a Chinese accent. A neurologist would say, "Well, you're just hearing that."

• 36:41Josh Clark?

  Right, you're right.

• 36:44Speaker 03

  So, you know, like you said, people suffer a bit from their own like sense of self.

• 36:51Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 36:52Speaker 03

  You know? Because, see, here's what I wonder, is in their... Do they hear it in their head as their own regular accent?

• 36:59Josh Clark?

  I don't think so, no. I think it sounds off to them. And I think it's probably distressing because they're like, wait, let me say that again. And they still say it, what they perceive is the wrong way. Because apparently, one of the hallmarks of foreign accent syndrome is the errors or the differences that they make in their prosody is predictable.

• 37:22Speaker 03

  Right.

• 37:23Josh Clark?

  Which makes it like an accent. I mean, that's what an accent is, is you're going to drop your Ts or replace the Th with a D.

• 37:30Speaker 03

  Right.

• 37:31Josh Clark?

  Just about every time, or add the R when you say wash.

• 37:35Speaker 03

  Wash?

• 37:36Josh Clark?

  Yeah, exactly. Like, it's a predictable thing. And that's part of foreign accent syndrome. It starts to happen in predictable ways, too. So I would guess, yeah, it sounds off to them as well.

• 37:48Speaker 03

  Well, because the reason I say that is because when, and I think I've talked about this, when my grandfather had a stroke, he still talked, but it just came out as gibberish. But in his head, he was saying the things that he was trying to say, which is, you know, one of the most frustrating things, I think.

• 38:05Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 38:06Speaker 03

  After a stroke victim is, I remember seeing him talk and getting so frustrated.

• 38:10Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 38:10Speaker 03

  He would just, you know, say things out loud, and it would come out as gibberish to us. But in his head, he's still saying, you know, his English words.

• 38:19Josh Clark?

  Right. It's got to make you feel trapped in your body.

• 38:22Speaker 03

  Yeah. However, FAS is a little all over the map, because there have been other weird cases, because we've been saying this whole time, there's not a new identity, it's the same, you're saying the same words and everything. But there have been cases where people do substitute out words, like you would say lift instead of an elevator.

• 38:46Josh Clark?

  Right. That's like the psychogenic version.

• 38:49Speaker 03

  I know, it's just so confusing.

• 38:51Josh Clark?

  Well, it almost makes me think like, so before, there was nothing but neurogenic foreign accent syndrome.

• 38:57Speaker 03

  Right.

• 38:58Josh Clark?

  Everything else was, you're just crazy. Now, they, they recognize that there's psychogenic FAS as well. I think what's gonna happen with more and more study, they're gonna just diverge into two totally different syndromes now.

• 39:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, that makes sense.

• 39:13Josh Clark?

  You know, I think they're gonna be like, that's actually not the same thing. There's something totally different. Neurogenic foreign accent syndrome is its own thing, and psychogenic is, is something else entirely as well.

• 39:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, they'll just make up a new name.

• 39:25Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 39:26Speaker 03

  Uh, this one other case I thought was interesting, about the Dutch woman.

• 39:31Josh Clark?

  Uh, which one?

• 39:32Speaker 03

  She was Dutch, is Dutch. And she developed a French accent.

• 39:38Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 39:39Speaker 03

  But she spoke Dutch using French syntax, and occasionally French, French words, as if she was a French person learning Dutch. And it turns out that she was a Dutch language teacher who taught French people to speak Dutch.

• 39:55Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 39:56Speaker 03

  And I don't know, was her psychogenic or neurogenic?

• 40:00Josh Clark?

  It would have to be psychogenic, because neurogenic has basically that original, um, Harry Whittaker criteria in 1982.

• 40:08Speaker 03

  Like you'd never, you'd never use different words and things?

• 40:10Josh Clark?

  Well, it was, it, it has to not be related to the patient's ability to speak a foreign language.

• 40:16Speaker 03

  Oh, okay, yeah, right.

• 40:17Josh Clark?

  So, like, she would be technically canceled out from neurogenic for that one, and, um, it would also, it didn't have anything to do with, with central nervous system damage.

• 40:29Speaker 03

  Right.

• 40:29Josh Clark?

  Which is, again, that's why I think it's gonna end up being its own thing.

• 40:33Speaker 03

  Man, so interesting.

• 40:34Josh Clark?

  It is.

• 40:35Speaker 03

  What else you got?

• 40:36Josh Clark?

  Uh, that's all I've got, man. Isn't that enough?

• 40:41Speaker 03

  I think so.

• 40:42Josh Clark?

  Man, any language stuff, anytime we talk about language in the brain, I guess, neurolinguistics, I just, my, I turn to goo. It's so interesting to me.

• 40:51Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:52Josh Clark?

  That's what happens when something interests me. I turn to goo. Uh, if you wanna turn to goo and learn more about foreign accent syndrome, you can type those words in the search bar at howstuffworks.com. And since I said that, it's time for Chuck. Administrative detail.

• 41:13Speaker 03

  How was that?

• 41:14Josh Clark?

  That was great, man. So Chuck?

• 41:16Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 41:17Josh Clark?

  We've got some more people to thank for sending us some nice stuff.

• 41:20Speaker 03

  That's right. I'm gonna start off with Nathan Ferlazzo.

• 41:24Josh Clark?

  Oh, that's good.

• 41:25Speaker 03

  Uh, he sent us some really lovely hand-drawn calendars and bookmarks. And you can find those at wildlife dot... wildlife dot marini ferlazzo dot com dot au. And that's M-A-R-I-N-I-F-E-R-L-A-Z-Z-O dot com dot au. And it was really, really beautiful work. And it's a cool thing because a portion of every sale is donated to a nonprofit wildlife organization.

• 41:55Josh Clark?

  Very nice. I think you handled that foreign accent very well.

• 41:59Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 42:00Josh Clark?

  Wanted to say thanks big time to Robert Coombs or Combs from Whitetail Coffee for the amazing coffees. Especially, like, seriously, this is a really good coffee. Especially the Lideris and La Morella. And that's Whitetail, T-A-L-E, coffee. It's just an amazing coffee subscription service that you should check out.

• 42:25Speaker 03

  Uh, well, I got a couple of more coffees. I'll just knock them both out. You have one sitting... Actually, you have two of them sitting on your desk right now, my friend.

• 42:32Josh Clark?

  Can't wait to go grab them.

• 42:33Speaker 03

  Uh, True Stone Coffee Roasters from St. Paul, Minnesota, sent us their medium blend. And I can't vouch for the taste yet because it just got here, but it smells good. And then Devin from True Coffee Roasters in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, sent us a dark-roasted Sumatra and a Mexico Alutra.

• 42:52Josh Clark?

  Nice.

• 42:52Speaker 03

  I'm sorry, Altra.

• 42:54Josh Clark?

  Nice. Thanks a lot, guys.

• 42:56Speaker 03

  We got coffee coming out our ears.

• 42:57Josh Clark?

  That's great. That's a good place to be. But we're not gonna have diabetes, my friend.

• 43:02Speaker 03

  No.

• 43:03Josh Clark?

  Doug Fuke sent us a beautiful illustrated card. Thanks for that, Doug. Thanks for saying hi.

• 43:08Speaker 03

  Meg from Seattle, she sent me a card about Leron's passing, my cat, which I lost last year, which is very, very sweet. And while I'm on that, Buckley, my old boy, passed away a couple of weeks ago, and everyone on Facebook was beyond supportive and sweet, and that really helped out. So, thanks for that.

• 43:29Josh Clark?

  Yeah, from everybody listening to you, Chuck, we send our condolences to you.

• 43:33Speaker 03

  Thank you. It was a very dark time.

• 43:36Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Let's see, Preston Pope, he sent us some amazing chocolates, Chuck, from V Chocolates. V, just the letter V, chocolates.com. Seriously, it's good stuff. I feel bad. I feel like I'm running around on little bit sweets.

• 43:56Speaker 03

  That's okay. We'll always come back to them.

• 43:58Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 43:58Speaker 03

  Our buddy Jeff Barney was kind enough, and I still haven't tried it, it's in my fridge, but you said it's the best, he sent us Cupi Japanese mayo.

• 44:08Josh Clark?

  Oh, it's so good.

• 44:09Speaker 03

  Because of my love for mayonnaise, and...

• 44:11Josh Clark?

  Chuck, you may never go back to American mayo again.

• 44:15Speaker 03

  Well, I'm finishing up a gallon of Dukes.

• 44:19Josh Clark?

  This afternoon?

• 44:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'm just gonna shoot it down, and then I'm gonna dive into the Cupi and see what's going on there. Gotta see what the difference is.

• 44:29Josh Clark?

  It's subtle, but you'll notice. You'll say, wow, this is actually really, really good mayonnaise.

• 44:35Speaker 03

  All right. Well, thanks Jeff Barney for that.

• 44:37Josh Clark?

  Thanks a lot to Tim and Joe from Primer Stories. I don't know if you remember, but our animal rights double-parter tied into an essay I wrote on PrimerStories.com, and they sent t-shirts to say thanks for that. So, thanks back for you guys' support.

• 44:56Speaker 03

  Ian Newton of the Baltimore Whiskey Company sent us some Ginger Apple Liqueur. And gin.

• 45:03Josh Clark?

  Yes. Thanks a lot. Don Kent, who last gave us some Pliny the Elder before, which was nice.

• 45:11Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 45:11Josh Clark?

  Also sent us a bunch of Soylent, and thank you also to Soylent itself, the company, who heard our Soylent episode and said, you guys haven't tried Soylent? Here, here's some Soylent. And thank you for that, Soylent. That was very nice.

• 45:25Speaker 03

  I think they got what they wanted out of this, which is for us to say Soylent 12 times.

• 45:29Josh Clark?

  Soylent.

• 45:30Speaker 03

  Uh, this came in today. Thomas Kregel, K-R-E-G-E-L. He sent me a friggin' monocle.

• 45:39Josh Clark?

  Oh, that's neat.

• 45:40Speaker 03

  And he heard me talking about my eyes going and how I just need him to read things close up. And he said, buddy, here's what you need to do, because you will one day embarrass your daughter like I embarrass my children. You need to rock a monocle. And it's a monocle.

• 45:57Josh Clark?

  So is he like a trained optometrist who can, like?

• 46:01Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 46:02Josh Clark?

  So he just gave you a piece of glass that's gonna ruin your eye over time?

• 46:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, I tried it and it's, you know, it's kinda like a reader. It works about the same as my prescription. But he uses one. He sent a little picture of himself.

• 46:15Josh Clark?

  Yep.

• 46:16Speaker 03

  And, uh, I guess I should plug the company. It's NearSight's Monocles is what he used.

• 46:22Josh Clark?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 46:23Speaker 03

  And, um, yeah, I got a monocle now.

• 46:25Josh Clark?

  Nice job, Chuck.

• 46:26Speaker 03

  I'm gonna use it.

• 46:27Josh Clark?

  Your new nickname is Pringles Guy.

• 46:29Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 46:30Josh Clark?

  Uh, I've got someone else, Pringles Guy. Janelle Samara sent us a copy of her book, Our Only Hope. Thank you and congratulations on writing a book.

• 46:40Speaker 03

  Uh, Bridget Massoth, M-A-S-S-O-T-H, sent us some really cute, along with an extra-large handwritten note. Sent us some really cute Josh and Chuck cutouts, like kinda paper cut and paste, uh, cutouts.

• 46:54Josh Clark?

  Nice.

• 46:55Speaker 03

  And yours is on your desk.

• 46:56Josh Clark?

  Thank you.

• 46:57Speaker 03

  You gotta get out of this room and

• 46:58Josh Clark?

  I do.

• 46:58Speaker 03

  go over to your desk. You got a bounty.

• 47:00Josh Clark?

  Uh, Francis Delapaz. Uh, so you know, there's like a whole group of people out there who believe in writing letters. Beautiful letters with fountain pens and all that.

• 47:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:10Josh Clark?

  And Francis Delapaz is one of them, sent us a beautiful handwritten letter. And you also apparently customarily send what's called a flat gift. And, uh, they sent a, a postcard, the sad life of Sad Clown, which is great. We think sad clowns are great.

• 47:27Speaker 03

  Well, I got a few letters, actually. I'll just knock those out because Sandra, maybe this was because of International Correspondence Writing Month.

• 47:35Speaker 03

  That we got these because apparently that happened.

• 47:37Josh Clark?

  Oh, okay.

• 47:38Speaker 03

  But Sandra sent us a nice handwritten letter in honor of that specifically. And then Austin from Bakersfield sent us a very nice handwritten note. And then Kristen Cook sent us a Valentine's Day card to all of us, including Harry Noel.

• 47:55Josh Clark?

  Man, that's.

• 47:55Speaker 03

  Not Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, but our own Noel, who was just Harry.

• 48:00Josh Clark?

  Right. We got some other ones too, Chuck. We got a lighthouse postcard from Big Sable Point from Teresa. We got a couple of Christmas cards from the Johnson-Alaman family and Tess Sullivan and her family. And I guess in part because of National, what is it, National Writing Month or Letter Writing Month?

• 48:20Speaker 03

  International Correspondence Writing Month.

• 48:22Josh Clark?

  Exactly. Noel Verosa, no, sorry, Noel Versoza. Noel Verzosa. I got it.

• 48:30Speaker 03

  It's handwritten. You can't, you know.

• 48:32Josh Clark?

  I got it that last time. Noel Verzosa wrote us a nice handwritten letter, handwritten letter in fountain pen.

• 48:40Speaker 03

  I've got two more. Megan Moon Waltman, that's Megan with two G's oddly. She sent us a copy of this really cool thing she made. It's a book. It's called Songbook: A Book of Music for All Levels, All Ages. And it is 11 songs, kind of written out as chords and things and illustrated for different instruments. Like there'll be a song for guitar, an intro song for banjo, one for cello. And it's got these cool pictures and then you can download these songs and kind of, I figure it's, I mean, it says for all ages, but it seems like it'd be great to give a kid.

• 49:15Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 49:16Speaker 03

  So check that out. It's very worthwhile.

• 49:18Josh Clark?

  I've got two more to finish then too. One, Austin Doyle sent me an amazing oil crayon painting, which I assume will inflate in value very rapidly once Austin dies.

• 49:31Speaker 03

  Hopefully that doesn't happen because Doyle is one of our oldest, and I don't mean by age, but one of our longest time listeners.

• 49:40Josh Clark?

  Yeah, he's a great guy. I mean, like when he dies of old age, I just plan to outlive him.

• 49:44Speaker 03

  Oh, okay.

• 49:45Josh Clark?

  So I can cash in on the painting he made me. And then Ben and Aaron Gibson sent us the Japanese car magnets that signify an elderly driver or a teen driver, which we've talked about before.

• 49:56Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember those.

• 49:57Josh Clark?

  Thanks, dudes.

• 49:58Speaker 03

  I got one more and this one. Boy, you have no idea what's waiting in there. You just came right into the recording studio for a change.

• 50:05Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 50:06Speaker 03

  Um, on your desk, right now, Josh.

• 50:08Josh Clark?

  I can't wait.

• 50:09Speaker 03

  You have a handmade cutting board.

• 50:12Josh Clark?

  Awesome.

• 50:13Speaker 03

  And it's really, really nice. This is from Christopher at The Timbered Wolf. And, um, it's just, you know, it's gorgeous. He sent a couple of these in and they're really, really nice.

• 50:23Josh Clark?

  Nice.

• 50:24Speaker 03

  So you gotta, you gotta take care of it, though. I left the instructions for you.

• 50:26Josh Clark?

  I got a lot of stuff to carry out of here.

• 50:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, you need a, uh, someone needs to send Josh a wheelbarrow.

• 50:31Josh Clark?

  Uh, or a radio flyer.

• 50:34Speaker 03

  Ooh, I got one of those for my kid. It's nice.

• 50:36Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah?

• 50:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, the old red wagon.

• 50:38Josh Clark?

  Like the real one? The radio flyer?

• 50:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, they still make them.

• 50:40Josh Clark?

  Nice. Well, thank you again to everybody who's sent us so much great stuff. We appreciate it big time. Uh, and, uh, if you want to get in touch with us, you can send us both an email to [email protected]. And as always, join us at our home on the web, stuffyoushouldknow.com.

• 51:00Speaker 00

  Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, MyHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 51:16Josh Clark?

  Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great deal on an off-road-ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's longest-lasting trucks, combining power for work, tech for adventures, and style in between. And they're built on a reputation for quality and reliability, which is why Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which could mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for more. Toyota, let's go places.

• 51:48Josh Clark?

  Wait, I came in for two things. How is this $47? All right, we're gonna need a plan here.

• 51:55Speaker 05

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• 52:16Speaker 07

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.