Pod Insights Stuff You Should Know Selects: How Flight Attendants Work About this episode Flight attendants have come a long way. From having to put up with rampant sexism, to the current incarnation as your first line of defense in case of an incident, they are valued airline employees. Learn all about this cool job in this classic episode.
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1:40 Speaker 02 Hey everybody, happy Saturday. Chuck here, delivering a brand new Selects episode, but it's really not brand new because as we all know, these are reruns, carefully curated and selected by both Josh and I each week. This one comes to you from December 7th, 2017. How Flight Attendants Work. Just got back from touring the Midwest and I went on quite a few flights and made sure I gave my appreciation to all the flight attendants because they do such great work and I think are often underappreciated. So if you want to know what they are actually doing on their job and a little bit about how you get hired, some behind the scenes stuff, check out this episode right now. How Flight Attendants Work.
2:20 Speaker 03 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio.
2:30 Josh Clark? Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is, part of your cabin crews, Charles W. Chuck Bryant. Filling the whole thing out is our pilot, Jerry Rowland. Captain Jairs, as we'll call her from now on.
2:44 Speaker 02 If you'd like to return your seat to its full upright position, along with your tray table.
2:49 Josh Clark? If you've lost your device or phone in the seat, don't touch it. Just come get one of us.
2:56 Speaker 02 Did that happen to you?
2:56 Josh Clark? It's a new thing.
2:57 Speaker 02 What? Tell me.
2:59 Josh Clark? No, it's like a new thing on Delta and like the safety instructions. They actually take a little time to say, if you've lost your tablet or phone in your seat, don't adjust it. Come get a flight attendant.
3:10 Speaker 02 What do you mean, "lost" in the seat? What do they mean?
3:12 Josh Clark? Like if you have, if you're sitting there and you've got the Butterfingers, and like you just turn into Jerry Lewis all of a sudden, and your phone slides down into the seat beside you, or in between the seat next to you.
3:24 Speaker 02 Okay.
3:25 Josh Clark? Your phone is in grave danger if you adjust your seat back upright again.
3:30 Speaker 02 Oh, like?
3:31 Josh Clark? They say, "Get a flight attendant," because they now have additional skills in their repertoire to get your tablet or phone out safely.
3:38 Speaker 02 So at some point, a memo went out to these airlines that said, "We're breaking cell phones," because people are like, "Well, maybe if I just throw my seat up, it'll pop out."
3:46 Josh Clark? Sure, it'll shoot right out. Like I pressed rewind on Life.
3:50 Speaker 02 Weird.
3:51 Josh Clark? Anyway, this is stuff you should know.
3:54 Speaker 02 The, I thought this was pretty interesting, actually. And it gave me even more of an appreciation for flight attendants.
3:59 Josh Clark? Yes.
4:00 Speaker 02 Than I had already gained over my years.
4:02 Josh Clark? Yeah. Because if you're one of those putzes who's mean to flight attendants, you're...
4:07 Speaker 02 Get off the plane.
4:08 Josh Clark? You're a jerk.
4:08 Speaker 02 Yep.
4:09 Josh Clark? Shouldn't be mean to people, anyway. Like, everybody's walking around carrying their own burden that you're totally unaware of. And if you're mean to somebody, it usually is because you're not getting what you want right then.
4:20 Speaker 02 Yeah.
4:20 Josh Clark? So if everybody can just calm down and be nice to each other, that's great. But be extra nice to the flight attendants. And if you don't agree with me now, I guarantee you'll agree with us at the end of the podcast.
4:31 Speaker 02 And even in our own article here, there was a... Interview with a flight attendant.
4:37 Josh Clark? A couple of them.
4:38 Speaker 02 Couple of them, but one of them very, you know, one of these vets said, eh, you know, back in the day, everyone was all excited when they flew. They were going someplace fun. Now everyone's crabby.
4:47 Josh Clark? Yeah, but she makes a really great point. Why? She says it's because this is all post nine eleven. That the added layers of security that they've put onto getting from your car onto the plane.
5:00 Speaker 02 Eh.
5:01 Josh Clark? Increases stress so much that you're exhausted by the time you get onto the plane. And flying has become a chore, a task.
5:08 Speaker 02 Yeah, I don't buy it.
5:09 Josh Clark? The seats have gotten way smaller.
5:12 Speaker 02 I do buy that.
5:13 Josh Clark? The legroom's gotten smaller. And yeah, I think that it's just kind of become more of like a, let's get from point A to point B.
5:22 Speaker 02 Yeah, I, taking your shoes off, taking your laptop out, it's about all the extra security. No big deal. That's what I say.
5:30 Josh Clark? Did I tell you I've gotten kind of on board your train about taking your shoes off on a flight?
5:35 Speaker 02 Oh, to not do it?
5:36 Josh Clark? Yeah.
5:36 Speaker 02 Good.
5:37 Josh Clark? So every once in a while, I'll just be like, to hell with that, I don't care. I'm taking my shoes off. I know my feet don't stink.
5:43 Speaker 02 Right.
5:44 Josh Clark? But I understand that there's people like you out there who are deeply offended by that kind of thing. So I typically do leave them on unless my dogs are just yapping so, so loud, I can't.
5:54 Speaker 02 Yeah.
5:54 Josh Clark? I can't ignore it. But it's pretty rare these days.
5:57 Speaker 02 I think my deal with that is, is you can't count on everyone's feet to not stink.
6:02 Josh Clark? Right.
6:02 Speaker 02 And I think plenty of people are like, I don't care.
6:05 Josh Clark? That their feet stink?
6:06 Speaker 02 Yeah.
6:06 Josh Clark? Yeah, that's pretty rotten.
6:07 Speaker 02 I just want to be comfy.
6:09 Josh Clark? That's pretty rotten.
6:10 Speaker 02 But, um.
6:11 Josh Clark? We live in something called society. There are rules.
6:15 Speaker 02 Uh, but getting back to the, the new regulations, which is pretty much laptop out, shoes off. I mean, you still had to go through the line, just like before, you know?
6:26 Josh Clark? Yeah, it seems, it feels different to me.
6:29 Speaker 02 Yeah.
6:30 Josh Clark? It does.
6:31 Speaker 02 Different as in more time consuming?
6:32 Josh Clark? Yeah, much more stressful. Like, it's not a, it's not an event like it was. It definitely used to be an event in a person's life to go on an airplane.
6:42 Speaker 02 Well, do you have a different feeling when you go on vacation compared to work travel?
6:47 Josh Clark? As far as the airport goes?
6:49 Speaker 02 Yeah, and how you feel about it?
6:50 Josh Clark? Zero.
6:51 Speaker 02 Same? Same stress?
6:52 Josh Clark? Yes. A lot, a lot of it, to be fair, is in my head.
6:56 Speaker 02 Yeah.
6:56 Josh Clark? To me, pretty much the worst thing that can happen to you is missing your airplane. I can't, I don't even want to imagine what happens when you miss your airplane. Yumi's like, it's not that bad. As a matter of fact, she's kind of entertained, like, purposefully making us miss.
7:14 Speaker 02 Oh, your own version of cognitive behavioral therapy?
7:17 Josh Clark? Expose your therapy, right. But I, I don't want to miss it. So I, I generate my own stress in a large part. But it does seem like much more of a process than it was before.
7:26 Speaker 02 Okay.
7:26 Josh Clark? How about you? You're fine with it?
7:29 Speaker 02 Yeah, I mean, it's no big deal. It's just shoes and a laptop.
7:31 Josh Clark? Yeah.
7:33 Speaker 02 Two bits.
7:33 Josh Clark? But, but it does seem like, and I read this travel and leisure article about flight attendants. Where, where the author was saying, or I think she was quoting a, a flight attendant who was saying like, we've all kind of decided as a group that we're fine with just getting on an airplane and getting to where we're going. And it doesn't have to be this luxury experience.
7:55 Speaker 02 Right.
7:55 Josh Clark? And as a result, the price of an airline ticket has come down dramatically. Compared to the golden age of flying.
8:02 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah, but then it has gone back up since it was pretty cheap.
8:05 Josh Clark? Yeah, but relative to, say, average income, it's, I think, much less than it was in, say, like, the sixties.
8:12 Speaker 02 Right.
8:13 Josh Clark? But in the sixties, they were cutting like, um, like, like cuts of meat on a, on a cart in front of you. I'm not kidding. There was a carving station that they would move. I'm not kidding, I've seen pictures of it.
8:25 Speaker 02 I believe it. I think it's funny that that's the definition of fancy is a carving station.
8:29 Josh Clark? It really is. I mean, it is. The guy had the hat and everything.
8:33 Speaker 02 Yeah, well, you and my extended family agree on that.
8:35 Josh Clark? But it's true. And all of us take our shoes off while we eat. Eat our carved meat. But there, there used to be that. There were like piano lounges in first-class lounge. Like there were, it was like, it was a, a, an event to do it. But the, the fact that it's gone is because we've all said, no, we want, we want to be able to travel for less cost.
8:56 Speaker 02 Right.
8:57 Josh Clark? With fewer frills.
8:58 Speaker 02 Yeah, I just kinda wanna get there. I'm, I'm with you there.
9:01 Josh Clark? Yeah.
9:01 Speaker 02 If that's what you think. Or I'm with the airline industry.
9:05 Josh Clark? Yeah.
9:05 Speaker 02 Just put me on the plane and get me there. Maybe throw a whiskey down my throat.
9:09 Josh Clark? Sure.
9:10 Speaker 02 And that's about all.
9:11 Josh Clark? There you go.
9:12 Speaker 02 Banana maybe.
9:13 Josh Clark? Yeah.
9:13 Speaker 02 If it's the morning.
9:14 Josh Clark? But the people who are gonna help you get there, banana and whiskey?
9:19 Speaker 02 Uh, yeah, sure.
9:20 Josh Clark? Okay. The people who are going to help you get there, they have, um, their job has changed over time, but they have not. Because they are unsung heroes and have been from beginning to end.
9:32 Speaker 02 That's right. The early days of plane travel, they hired, uh, young men to take care of the stewardship of the plane.
9:42 Josh Clark? Cabin boys.
9:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
9:43 Josh Clark? Cabin boy. That Chris Elliott movie?
9:45 Speaker 02 Yeah. I think that was a boat cabin, but still.
9:48 Josh Clark? Sure.
9:48 Speaker 02 Still a cabin boy.
9:49 Josh Clark? Yeah.
9:50 Speaker 02 Um, and that was just sort of the thing. And then this, this woman came along, and you dug this up, this is really great. Her name was Ellen Church, the 1930s, uh, in 1930, in fact. And she was a nurse and a licensed pilot. So she had it going on. And she said, you know what? Um, I have an idea, uh, Boeing Air Transport, who would become United Airlines. Why don't you hire eight women to, to take care of you on your flight?
10:17 Josh Clark? Mm-hmm.
10:18 Speaker 02 For three months and just see how that goes. And it went great. And they said, I think we're on to something here.
10:24 Josh Clark? Yeah. She actually, um, pitched the idea, because at first the, the execs were like, no, that's a stupid idea. We know, this is no place for women.
10:32 Speaker 02 Yeah.
10:33 Josh Clark? Um, and she said, well, get this. How is a man going to say that he can't fly because he's afraid of flying? If he knows there's a woman up there flying around?
10:41 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
10:42 Josh Clark? And they're like, actually, that's pretty good psychology. So they took her up on it and it became, yeah, a thing from that moment on. But before her, I have to say, if we're talking gender, nonspecific flight attendants.
10:54 Speaker 02 Yes.
10:54 Josh Clark? A man had her beat by 18 years. A German man named Heinrich Kubis, who was the world's first flight attendant, and he worked zeppelins, including the Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg.
11:08 Speaker 02 Really?
11:09 Josh Clark? Yeah.
11:09 Speaker 02 Did he die on the Hindenburg?
11:10 Josh Clark? No, he lived.
11:11 Speaker 02 Oh, wow.
11:11 Josh Clark? Very few people died on the Hindenburg. I think they were mostly on the ground, remember?
11:15 Speaker 02 Nah, I don't remember.
11:16 Josh Clark? Because the hydrogen burned up.
11:18 Speaker 02 Uh huh.
11:19 Josh Clark? And the people who died were ones who jumped. That's what it was.
11:22 Speaker 02 Is that it?
11:22 Josh Clark? Mm-hmm.
11:23 Speaker 02 Did we do a show on that?
11:24 Josh Clark? We've talked about it before.
11:25 Speaker 02 Yeah?
11:26 Josh Clark? Yeah, in one of our many, many, many short-lived video series.
11:30 Speaker 02 Oh, right, of course. So, at any rate, Ellen Church changed the face of the flight attendant industry. And then, in the sixties and seventies, of course, it was sort of a, and this is not me talking here. This is in the article. It was the sexy stewardess phase of airline travel.
11:51 Josh Clark? Yeah.
11:51 Speaker 02 And that was definitely the deal, that you had weight limits and height limits. You had to look a certain way and they put you in the just the right outfit. And it was all about sort of, hey, get up there and look good and serve drinks.
12:05 Josh Clark? So, and they were, they were like those limits you talk about?
12:08 Speaker 02 Yeah.
12:08 Josh Clark? Technically, they're still around. There are weight limits and height limits, but they're restricted to, you can't be so short that you can't reach the overhead bins.
12:17 Speaker 02 Yeah, they're all practical limits.
12:18 Josh Clark? Right, you can't be so tall that you're just bumping your head all over the place.
12:21 Speaker 02 Yeah.
12:22 Josh Clark? You have to be of the, of adequate size to fit into a jump seat that the flight attendants sit in.
12:28 Speaker 02 Yeah.
12:29 Josh Clark? But that's it. Back then, it was, you have to weigh, like, no more than 120 pounds. You have to be this height. And it had everything to do with looks and attractiveness.
12:39 Speaker 02 Yeah, and you're 32, so you're fired.
12:41 Josh Clark? Yeah, that was the thing, like, very early on. I think in the fifties? I think in the 1950s, they, they started, airlines started instituting age restrictions, where once you got to age 32, you were no longer eligible to be a flight attendant. You might have a job down on the ground, but you couldn't be a flight attendant anymore because you were too old, according to them. Plus, also, you couldn't be married.
13:06 Speaker 02 Or have kids.
13:07 Josh Clark? Right.
13:07 Speaker 02 Yeah. It's very restrictive back in the day.
13:10 Josh Clark? Also, maybe the most sexist industry that's ever existed.
13:14 Speaker 02 And of course, that's airline-dependent. It's not like there was a federal regulation, you know?
13:19 Josh Clark? Right, yeah.
13:20 Speaker 02 So, it all depended, but...
13:24 Speaker 02 You need a high school diploma at the very least these days, but they're very competitive jobs to get. Gone are the days where you can just waltz in there with a headshot and get a job as a flight attendant. A lot of people want these gigs. And so if you have a college degree, then you definitely have a leg up these days.
13:40 Josh Clark? Definitely, but it's always been pretty competitive. Supposedly in 2006, Delta announced that they had a thousand openings and got like a hundred thousand applications.
13:53 Speaker 02 Yeah.
13:54 Josh Clark? But it's always been like really competitive because from the beginning it was viewed as like really glamorous.
13:59 Speaker 02 In the beginning.
14:01 Josh Clark? In the beginning, for sure.
14:02 Speaker 02 I don't know about from the beginning.
14:03 Josh Clark? So because it's been a really competitive career, Chuck, and because the airlines were run by like men who decided that they owned their flight attendants because they ran the airlines, there was in that 60s, the swinging 60s era of that sexy stewardess thing you were talking about, like they were a major draw for airlines.
14:30 Speaker 02 Sure.
14:31 Josh Clark? And the airlines like advertised them as such. So I've got, I found something. This is in that travel and leisure article I found. You ready for this?
14:41 Speaker 02 I am.
14:42 Josh Clark? This is gonna knock your socks off. I purposefully didn't send this to you because...
14:45 Speaker 02 You wanted my socks to be on the floor.
14:46 Josh Clark? I wanted your, yeah. So National Airlines in the 60s had an advertisement where they had flight attendants Debbie, Cheryl, and Karen, and they cooed, "Fly me." They also had an alternate slogan, "I'm going to fly you like you've never been flown before."
15:04 Speaker 02 And these are print ads?
15:06 Josh Clark? Yeah.
15:07 Speaker 02 Okay.
15:08 Josh Clark? Continental, well Continental's was lame. Braniff had one. Their advertising said, "Does your wife know you're flying with us?" Yeah.
15:18 Speaker 02 Yeah.
15:19 Josh Clark? Pacific Southwest said you want an aisle seat because all of our flight attendants have mini skirts and sometimes they drop stuff.
15:26 Speaker 02 Yeah.
15:26 Josh Clark? Basically. And then get this, Eastern Airlines gave out little black books to their male passengers.
15:33 Speaker 02 Oh, wow.
15:33 Josh Clark? So they could get the numbers of the stewardesses, the flight attendants.
15:37 Speaker 02 And then Qantas had a slogan, "Ever seen a tickle fight?"
15:40 Josh Clark? Crazy. You're right.
15:42 Speaker 02 Yes.
15:42 Josh Clark? That's basically the sentiment behind it. And so you've got the airlines advertising this, and then the flight attendants' unions are fighting this stuff tooth and nail to be treated in a dignified manner and not be fired because you weigh 122 pounds.
15:57 Speaker 02 Right.
15:58 Josh Clark? Which, yeah, it's just crazy. This is like, this was the way that it was back then.
16:02 Speaker 02 Yeah. You show up for work and it's like, "Hey, honey, get on the scale."
16:05 Josh Clark? And when's your birthday again?
16:06 Speaker 02 Yeah. Terrible. You kind of went to a Bill Clinton there. Sounded a little Bill Clinton-y.
16:12 Josh Clark? I thought it sounded like W.
16:14 Speaker 02 All right. Well, let's take a break then and work on our presidential accents. And we'll come back and talk about post-9/11 flying.
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19:57 Speaker 02 Alright, so we did mention that after 9/11, things of course did change. And, things changed in a big way for flight attendants.
20:08 Speaker 02 Not that they never trained on safety, but I think the training got way more intense.
20:13 Josh Clark? Yeah, did you see that one I sent you?
20:14 Speaker 02 Yeah.
20:15 Josh Clark? From, I think, the Points Guy's website.
20:18 Speaker 02 Yeah, we should go over that now, actually.
20:19 Josh Clark? So, he has a Flight Attendant Insider who writes quite a bit for his site. I don't remember her name, but just look up the Points Guy Flight Attendant Insider. And, she goes into great detail about what it's like to go through training. And it is more intense than I realized it was, for sure.
20:38 Speaker 02 Yeah, and this depends on the airlines, but they sort of give averages. The average training is seven weeks, but they can be as long as 12 weeks. We're talking six days a week, 12 hours a day. And, they call it Barbie Boot Camp, because you don't show up in your sweats and tank top with no makeup.
20:56 Josh Clark? Right, it's not like you're a passenger.
20:57 Speaker 02 No, yeah, exactly. Your big fuzzy slippers and your pillow from home. No, you show up as if you are there to work a flight. So you have to be in whatever attire that they require you to be in. And have your hair done however you would do it. And just basically be game day ready. And then, they work you that many hours a day, because that's about how many hours a day you're gonna be working.
21:22 Josh Clark? Yeah.
21:22 Speaker 02 As a flight attendant.
21:23 Josh Clark? When you start working, at first you have very little control over your own schedule. Although I get the impression you have flexibility out of the gate. But if you say, "I want to work this many days a month", that's the input you have at first, until you start to develop seniority. So yeah, they expose you to that.
21:42 Speaker 02 Yeah.
21:43 Josh Clark? Six days a week, 12 hours a day during training.
21:46 Speaker 02 For many weeks. So, the first thing they do is learn all the safety equipment. They're given written tests, that she said that they had to score at least a 90 on.
21:58 Josh Clark? 80. I said that really weird, didn't I?
22:01 Speaker 02 Yeah, well, she said if it was an eighty, they had to retake it. So they had to score at least a ninety to pass.
22:05 Josh Clark? I got you.
22:06 Speaker 02 And then, uh, practical exams, where you had to score a hundred percent on these practical tests. And that basically means you are on a fake plane doing the thing. And it's not like you're serving that Diet Coke wrong. It's all, it's mainly ninety percent of this training, ninety-five percent of this training.
22:25 Josh Clark? Yeah, that's what she said.
22:26 Speaker 02 Is, uh, equipment, safety, all that stuff.
22:30 Josh Clark? Right, like, the first stuff where they're giving you these tests that you have to score high on, uh, is, here is, here is all of the stuff you need to know about the equipment. And then there's the drills where you're showing that you know how to use it in these simulated emergencies, right?
22:43 Speaker 02 Yeah, like smokes pouring in a cabin, what do you do?
22:45 Josh Clark? Did you see that one picture of, um, Emirates Airlines? It's like the big-
22:49 Speaker 02 I did not.
22:50 Josh Clark? Like, a third of an Emirates plane, basically, the, the main cabin-
22:53 Speaker 02 Yeah.
22:54 Josh Clark? With the slide out going into a pool inside, like, a hangar.
22:57 Speaker 02 Uh huh.
22:58 Josh Clark? And you're like, oh, they're gonna have to go down that slide.
23:00 Speaker 02 Yeah, that's not-
23:01 Josh Clark? There's no way they're not going down that slide, in high heels and everything, too. Um, but they're running these drills, and apparently, this is a big, um, this is where most people wash out, she said.
23:12 Speaker 02 Yeah.
23:12 Josh Clark? Was during the drills, because it's so stressful. And, and also, um, she, she points out that because this job always has been and, and still is so competitive, that the airlines can choose to be super picky. So they will drop you from this, these training programs-
23:28 Speaker 02 Yeah.
23:29 Josh Clark? Pretty, pretty easily and quickly, because they know that they're, they're, they can find somebody else who could do it better, right?
23:34 Speaker 02 Yeah, so you end up with the cream of the crop in the end.
23:37 Josh Clark? Exactly, that's a really good way to put it. And then she says that really the last thing they learn and the stuff that they spend the least amount of time on is the actual customer service stuff, like pushing the beverage cart-
23:46 Speaker 02 Right.
23:47 Josh Clark? Where they know exactly what to do during, if sudden turbulence hits-
23:50 Speaker 02 Yeah.
23:51 Josh Clark? And there's a beverage cart. They, they are taught less how to pour that Diet Coke or whatever.
23:56 Speaker 02 I think, like, I think I could do that.
24:00 Josh Clark? The pouring the stuff? I would get so stressed out.
24:03 Speaker 02 The whole thing, like, I've seen it enough now, we travel enough for work-
24:05 Josh Clark? Uh huh.
24:06 Speaker 02 Where if, like, a flight attendant was like, "Oh, my ankle!" I, I could throw on the vest and run beverage service.
24:12 Josh Clark? You'd be like, "Step aside, I've got this."
24:14 Speaker 02 Like, I know exactly how to, how they're doing it, I'm paying attention.
24:17 Josh Clark? Would you splint the person's ankle first and then take over beverage service?
24:21 Speaker 02 I would splint the ankle, and then I would get up, "Do you want peanuts, pretzels, or a Biscoff cookie?"
24:25 Josh Clark? Yep.
24:26 Speaker 02 Do you, what kind of drink you on?
24:28 Josh Clark? Can't serve peanuts anymore.
24:29 Speaker 02 Sure you can. I had peanuts the other day.
24:32 Josh Clark? What?
24:32 Speaker 02 Yeah.
24:33 Josh Clark? You had peanuts?
24:33 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
24:34 Josh Clark? On a flight?
24:35 Speaker 02 Yeah, I think they, they don't serve peanuts if someone's allergic. But I don't think they banned peanuts, did they?
24:41 Josh Clark? It was my impression they have just stopped. I've been on so many flights where they're like, we, we've got peanuts, but you can't have them because 13E is allergic. And everybody's like, oh, now they have almonds.
24:52 Speaker 02 Yeah, they did have almonds on a Delta flight the other day that was on, they were delicious.
24:55 Josh Clark? You had peanuts on a flight? That's like a, a Selacanth.
25:00 Speaker 02 And then, uh, I'm a, I'm a sucker for those Delta cookies, though.
25:04 Josh Clark? Are you? I have, um, I have, uh, desensitized to them. I actually just do pretzels now. Those Biscoff cookies?
25:12 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
25:13 Josh Clark? I used to be a junkie for them.
25:14 Speaker 02 I like them.
25:14 Josh Clark? Yeah.
25:15 Speaker 02 I mean, you know, it's just a little, was it cinnamon?
25:18 Josh Clark? Treat in the air.
25:19 Speaker 02 A little shortbread something or other?
25:20 Josh Clark? It's like a gingerbread, kind of. But it's called Spekulose.
25:24 Speaker 02 Ew.
25:24 Josh Clark? Which is the worst name for a dessert treat on, on the planet.
25:27 Speaker 02 It says that on the package?
25:28 Josh Clark? Spekulose, it's like, uh, yeah, that's the original Dutch name for that.
25:32 Speaker 02 Interesting.
25:32 Josh Clark? I'll tell you where the money is, Chuck.
25:34 Speaker 02 Where's that?
25:35 Josh Clark? I don't remember what airline it is, but they have this Dutch treat. It's, it's two thin, very sweet waffle cookies with a caramel, like, inside.
25:47 Speaker 02 Yeah.
25:47 Josh Clark? Right? Carmel sandwich. And they say, take this thing and put it over your hot coffee and let the steam from the coffee warm it up. And brother, you were on cloud nine.
25:58 Speaker 02 Who tells you that? The flight attendant?
25:59 Josh Clark? The package.
26:00 Speaker 02 Oh, okay.
26:01 Josh Clark? The flight attendant doesn't tell you that.
26:02 Speaker 02 Right.
26:02 Josh Clark? They just go, here, read this package.
26:05 Speaker 02 That sounds like some fancy, uh, international type of line.
26:08 Josh Clark? I know, it was domestic.
26:10 Speaker 02 Was it?
26:10 Josh Clark? I think it was Midwestern, though. There's a lot of, um, European immigrants from the 19th century.
26:15 Speaker 02 Right.
26:16 Josh Clark? So that would explain why.
26:17 Speaker 02 Exerting their influence?
26:17 Josh Clark? Yeah.
26:18 Speaker 02 In all the best foodie ways?
26:19 Josh Clark? Yeah.
26:22 Speaker 02 We got sidetracked there, where were we?
26:23 Josh Clark? Oh, we were talking about how difficult the training actually is.
26:27 Speaker 02 Yeah, and that's sort of the long and short of it. I mean, it's long, it's sort of grueling, and at the very end is when you learn just the... She said that you learn that 5% of time you spend is what you end up doing 99% of the time.
26:41 Josh Clark? Right.
26:42 Speaker 02 But you just have to be so prepared for that 1%.
26:45 Josh Clark? Yeah.
26:45 Speaker 02 In case something goes wrong, you can just react on instinct.
26:48 Josh Clark? Well, what made me feel really good was that she said the flight attendants you were flying with are so well-trained, and they also have to go back for annual training every year.
26:59 Speaker 02 Yeah.
26:59 Josh Clark? To learn like new stuff that the airlines have figured out, learn new procedures, whatever. And, you know, anytime, say, like, an airline deploys a new jet in its fleet.
27:10 Speaker 02 Yeah.
27:10 Josh Clark? They gotta go figure that out, because the safety stuff's in different places, and they need to know this stuff.
27:15 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah.
27:15 Josh Clark? And they need to be able to remember it and act on it during an emergency. So, I guess I didn't really realize this, but any flight attendant on a commercial aircraft that you're flying is capable of saving your life should an emergency arise.
27:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, I mean, they talk about, they even go through like baby-birthing training.
27:34 Josh Clark? Right. So, the next time you want to yell at them because they're saying the overhead space is full.
27:40 Speaker 02 Yeah.
27:40 Josh Clark? Remember that that person can save your life if this plane starts to go down, or lands in the water or something.
27:46 Speaker 02 And it's not their fault the overhead space is full.
27:48 Josh Clark? No. It's all the people who put their bag up and then walk to the back of the plane.
27:52 Speaker 02 Are you talking about the worst people on earth?
27:54 Josh Clark? The worst people on earth, and they took their shoes off as they were walking back.
27:58 Speaker 02 Oh, man. Why do people do that?
28:00 Josh Clark? I don't know, but I was on a flight the other day, and I've never seen overhead space more screwed up by just a handful of people who did that. It was crazy. Like, toward the end, people who were sitting in like the first, you know, five rows after first class were having to go to the back of the plane, and you're just like watching them like, "Oh, man, you poor person" as you're walking off the plane, and they're just sitting there waiting to get their bag.
28:27 Speaker 02 Yeah.
28:28 Josh Clark? It's crazy.
28:29 Speaker 02 Yeah. I think when they started charging for bags, that's when everything went berserk. Because nobody wants to check their bag, except me. I don't mind now.
28:42 Josh Clark? Yeah, it's crazy to me.
28:43 Speaker 02 Yeah, I've never lost a bag, so I don't mind. I don't have to sweat it. I mean, this is a... If I'm just going on a work trip, I don't even have my roller bag anymore. I have my, and I'll buzz mark of them all day, my Red Ox.
28:56 Josh Clark? Oh, really?
28:57 Speaker 02 Yeah, my Red Ox shoulder bag.
28:58 Josh Clark? Yeah.
28:59 Speaker 02 Uh, the thing is great and I can fit everything in there. But if I'm going on like a vacation, and I know you think it's heresy, but I will check that bag and relax my day away.
29:09 Josh Clark? I'm not trying to yuck your yum here.
29:11 Speaker 02 Yeah.
29:11 Josh Clark? If you want to check your bag, that's fine.
29:13 Speaker 02 Or gate check it, that's the good deal, because you don't have to pay there.
29:16 Josh Clark? Okay, I have no problem with gate checking it at the plane, so it's just stowed in a handy manner. So you just walk off and they hand it to you.
29:24 Speaker 02 Mm-hmm.
29:24 Josh Clark? That's fine. But there are very few things that you can do that is a bigger waste of time than standing around waiting for your bag to make it to the bag carousel. I hate doing that, especially when you're ready for vacation to start.
29:37 Speaker 02 Yeah, I don't mind, because most airports, my bag's cruising around that thing by the time I get to baggage.
29:42 Josh Clark? Oh, yeah?
29:42 Speaker 02 Yeah, for me.
29:43 Josh Clark? Okay.
29:45 Speaker 02 And that's just because I, uh, I don't know, I don't like having to mess with fighting a bag, a suitcase on a plane.
29:54 Josh Clark? Yeah.
29:54 Speaker 02 I don't like contributing to that whole process.
29:57 Josh Clark? Sure.
29:58 Speaker 02 Much less being a business traveler, like you see those dudes that have the, the roller bag with the big bag on top of that and then a backpack.
30:06 Josh Clark? Mm-hmm.
30:07 Speaker 02 You're like, dude, that's like, you've got three pieces of luggage.
30:09 Josh Clark? Yep. Need to merge them.
30:12 Speaker 02 Right, but this is not about just us complaining about traveling.
30:14 Josh Clark? No, all the flight attendants are like, get back to the flight attendants, get back to us.
30:19 Speaker 02 Uh, so, customer service, it is the goal of the flight attendant to keep you happy as possible. Um, but also, you know, they don't have to indulge you, once you have passed the point of sobriety.
30:33 Josh Clark? Right.
30:33 Speaker 02 Or just jerkness, um, they don't deal with that stuff anymore. Like, they will stop. Boarding the plane, if you're drunk before you get on and have you escorted off, it's it's serious business now.
30:46 Josh Clark? Yep.
30:46 Speaker 02 You shouldn't get on a plane if you're loaded.
30:48 Josh Clark? No. Time was, they would get you loaded on the plane. Now, they, yeah, they don't, they don't mess with that.
30:55 Speaker 02 But they're, they're long days. So like we said, 12 hour days. They are, if you're, if you're new, like you said earlier, they don't have a ton of control over their schedule. So you're gonna be working a lot of weekends. Everybody's gonna be working some weekends. You're gonna be doing overnight trips, spending the night in, in cities and that can sometimes be fun if you put a positive spin on it.
31:16 Josh Clark? Sure.
31:17 Speaker 02 Or it can be a big drag.
31:18 Josh Clark? Yeah. But one thing that I have seen across the board from all the sources I hit for this was that you, it's up to you how much or how little you fly. Up to, I think, 100 hours a month. There's like a maximum you can, you can work.
31:33 Speaker 02 Right. They probably minimums too, don't you think, or no?
31:36 Josh Clark? Not that I saw.
31:38 Speaker 02 Probably minimums to get perks.
31:40 Josh Clark? Probably do.
31:41 Speaker 02 Yeah.
31:42 Josh Clark? But I get the impression that that's actually, once you've done it for like six months. Typically, when you're hired on for an airline, you're on a probationary six month period.
31:51 Speaker 02 On the perks?
31:51 Josh Clark? Yeah. Because they don't want just, you know, number one, they don't know you from anybody. They've known you for seven weeks. They just trained you.
31:58 Speaker 02 Right.
31:58 Josh Clark? They don't know what you're really like.
31:59 Speaker 02 I want 10 buddy passes and then I'm gonna quit my job.
32:01 Josh Clark? Exactly. Well, I saw another thing too. Apparently buddy passes are like the worst thing that's ever happened to a flight attendant.
32:08 Speaker 02 Oh, yeah?
32:08 Josh Clark? Cause everybody begs for them, but they are like really actually bad passes. Like you're at the, the end of standby. And if your friend, if you give the buddy pass to your friend and they start yelling at the gate agent, you get in trouble because it was your buddy pass that was being used. You might even have your perks revoked because your friend was a jerk to the gate attendant and everybody's always asking you for them. So a lot of people just don't even touch the buddy pass perk.
32:36 Speaker 02 That's like if you're a country club member, you're responsible for the behavior of your guests.
32:40 Josh Clark? Right. Now.
32:41 Speaker 02 Not that I would know.
32:42 Josh Clark? There are other perks. You don't know? You've seen Caddyshack.
32:46 Speaker 02 Yeah, but I've never like belonged to a country club.
32:49 Josh Clark? There are other perks where like a family members, immediate family members, sometimes extended family members, spouses. They get the same perks you do, which very frequently is like you just pay taxes on the ticket.
33:03 Speaker 02 Right, yeah.
33:03 Josh Clark? And you fly for free. Though that's different, like all flight attendants take advantage of that. Some of them will will hop on over to Europe or something for, you know, lunch.
33:15 Speaker 02 Hundred bucks?
33:16 Josh Clark? Yeah, maybe, if that.
33:18 Speaker 02 And tax?
33:19 Josh Clark? Yeah.
33:20 Speaker 02 Well, buddy passes used to be a lot easier when they didn't oversell all the flights. You know, like I used to have friends back in the day, I'd get a buddy pass, fly, no problem.
33:31 Josh Clark? Right.
33:31 Speaker 02 But now, you're right, it's you're in a bad position.
33:33 Josh Clark? Yeah, you are. Do you remember flights where like entire rows would be empty?
33:38 Speaker 02 It was the best.
33:39 Josh Clark? They'd be like, well, the flight was scheduled, so we have to, we have to stick to it. It's strange now.
33:44 Speaker 02 What a day. So you're gonna be working seventy-five to eighty-five hours a month generally, but like you said, I guess you can't go over that one hundred mark. And interestingly too, another thing you get trained for is, very sadly, human trafficking these days. They will fly kidnapped people right in front of people's faces. And so flight attendants now are trained to to spot this kind of activity, which can mean like an adult who doesn't really understand about the final destination. That's a bad sign.
34:17 Josh Clark? Yeah.
34:18 Speaker 02 Or if it's like an adult traveler with a minor and they just, it definitely looks like a little more than parental behavior going on.
34:26 Josh Clark? Yeah.
34:27 Speaker 02 Like, don't get up and go to the bathroom, that kind of thing.
34:29 Josh Clark? Apparently, that's how it started. There was a man who caught the suspicion of a flight attendant named Sandra Fiorini. She worked for American Airlines. She noticed that like a late eighteen-year-old teenager age guy who was, had an infant that still had the umbilical cord attached. And like a bottle of milk in his pocket and a couple of diapers stuffed in his, in his pocket, his other pocket. So like this baby was stolen or bought or something.
34:59 Speaker 02 Yeah.
35:00 Josh Clark? And she started looking into it and found out that this is actually a big deal and. teamed up with a woman named Deborah Sigmund who founded Innocence at Risk. And they kind of started this program where now if you're a flight attendant, one of the things you're trained for is to recognize human trafficking. And they actually, a bunch of flight attendants volunteered at the last Super Bowl to look for human trafficking because apparently the Super Bowl is like also the Super Bowl of prostitution and human trafficking in the world every year. So, flight attendants went to the Super Bowl and volunteered to kind of like keep tabs on things and call out people they thought were human trafficked.
35:40 Speaker 02 You mean the big game?
35:42 Josh Clark? Yeah. Somebody wrote in and said, "You can call it Super Bowl, you can't do anything."
35:47 Speaker 02 Yeah, you can't like advertise anything using those words.
35:50 Josh Clark? Right.
35:50 Speaker 02 I don't think.
35:51 Josh Clark? We can't sell our Super Bowl bobble heads that we have a box full of.
35:55 Speaker 02 It's too bad.
35:56 Josh Clark? It was a poor investment.
35:57 Speaker 02 Uh, should we take our final break here?
35:59 Josh Clark? Yeah.
36:00 Speaker 02 All right, let's do that. We'll talk a little bit more about some of the perks and drawbacks right after this.
36:20 Josh Clark? Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it all starts with a great deal on a truck from your local Toyota dealer.
36:29 Speaker 02 That's right. Make a smart buy on the off-road Ready Tacoma or a half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's most capable and longest-lasting trucks, built with the strength for the tough jobs, the tech to power your next big adventure, and the rugged style for everything in between.
36:42 Josh Clark? Or discover Toyota's off-road lineup, including the iconic 4Runner and Land Cruiser, designed to go beyond the everyday. And with Toyota's proven reputation for quality and reliability, plus hybrid power on many models, you can get more for every mile and drive for less along the way.
36:58 Speaker 02 That's right. And long after you leave the lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with great resale value. So, you could trade in for more when you're ready for your next Toyota. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details, or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.
37:23 Josh Clark? You know, eating is a huge part of our lives. It fuels us, it brings us together, and it's one of life's great pleasures. But once a meal's over, we don't think much about what happens next unless something starts to feel off, because what we eat and how our bodies respond to it is complicated.
37:38 Speaker 02 That's right. From the very first bite, food kicks off a chain reaction. Signals moving between the gut, the brain, and the immune system. The constant back and forth we can't see and often don't fully understand. So we want to introduce to you Eating Interrupted, a new podcast from iHeart Ruby Studio. It's hosted by longtime journalist and Crohn's patient Cynthia McFadden. Eating Interrupted explores everything from food allergies and intolerance, and why they seem to be on the rise, to how digestion changes as we age, and what it's really like to live with a chronic GI condition.
38:06 Josh Clark? Through personal stories and expert insight, listen in to unpack what it means when your body doesn't always respond to food the way you expect, and what science is now revealing about why. Listen to Eating Interrupted on the iHeart app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
38:25 Speaker 04 First thought is like, wow, how are we going to do all this?
38:28 Josh Clark? Hey, this is Josh and Chuck from Stuff You Should Know.
38:31 Speaker 02 That's Alan Goya, planning engineer at AT&T, and he's talking about Intuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers, where every seat, screen, phone, and transaction is connected with AT&T fiber and 5G, redefining the fan's experience, and Alan's master plan made it all possible.
38:47 Speaker 04 It was going to rival anything that was already built, and that takes quite a bit of people and different teams to all be on the same page.
38:55 Josh Clark? That includes field services manager Drexel Jones. His team made sure it all came together and held up on game day.
39:01 Speaker 05 Through what Alan's whole crew designed, we connected the event visitors to the world.
39:07 Speaker 02 And after years of hard work and collaboration, it was opening night.
39:10 Speaker 05 To actually see the whole stadium light up and data's flowing is a beautiful thing.
39:14 Speaker 04 With the fan's experience, it's incredible. It gave me a lot of pride.
39:18 Josh Clark? AT&T, connecting fans to what they love.
39:22 Speaker 06 Connecting changes everything. AT&T.
39:40 Speaker 02 All right, let's talk about pay.
39:43 Josh Clark? Baby.
39:44 Speaker 02 You don't make a ton of money. I think starting salary's in the mid 30s.
39:49 Josh Clark? Oh, no, no.
39:50 Speaker 02 For a flight attendant?
39:50 Josh Clark? That's, no, no. Starting salary can be like 18.
39:54 Speaker 02 Oh, really?
39:54 Josh Clark? The median in 2012, or 13 or 14, was 37. The median.
40:00 Speaker 02 Yeah.
40:01 Josh Clark? That's like, that's the middle.
40:04 Josh Clark? That's, that's not much, you know? That's why it's such an attractive, um, a job for people who are just looking for extra money.
40:15 Speaker 02 Right.
40:16 Josh Clark? If you're a parent and you, you have so much control over your schedule, once you start to get some seniority.
40:22 Speaker 02 Yeah.
40:23 Josh Clark? It's a great, great way to spend your money. If you're a soap opera star. It's a great, great extra job. Did you see that?
40:30 Speaker 02 Yeah, what was her name?
40:31 Josh Clark? Kate Linder, who plays Esther Valentine on The Young and the Restless.
40:34 Speaker 02 Who knew? She's a flight attendant, as well.
40:36 Josh Clark? For like 32 years.
40:38 Speaker 02 Yeah.
40:38 Josh Clark? And she's done them both for about the same amount of time.
40:40 Speaker 02 Yeah.
40:41 Josh Clark? And she does it like every week.
40:43 Speaker 02 Yeah, and she says it helps keep her grounded, no pun intended.
40:47 Josh Clark? Yeah, she didn't say the no pun intended part.
40:49 Speaker 02 Yeah, but, uh, I mean, she gets those perks. She gets to fly to Europe for lunch if she wants.
40:54 Josh Clark? Right.
40:55 Speaker 02 And act on soaps.
40:57 Josh Clark? Right.
40:57 Speaker 02 So, good for her.
40:58 Josh Clark? And that's not to say that the, that median, I mean, obviously, that's the, the middle amount, but it goes much higher than that. And it all has to do, all perks, all pay, all benefits, all that stuff. The flight attendant profession is all about seniority.
41:14 Speaker 02 Oh, sure.
41:15 Josh Clark? The, and there are plenty of flight attendants out there who are career flight attendants and, you know, like Kate, uh, Kate Linder. She, she's been doing it for 32 years. There's another, um, woman named Candy Bruton, who is a 43-year veteran of flight attendant.
41:32 Speaker 02 Yeah.
41:33 Josh Clark? Like, there, you can make a, a long, happy career out of it, now that they've taken that age restriction off.
41:41 Speaker 02 Yeah, $21.23 a few years ago, an hour, was the, was the rate for a first-year attendant.
41:48 Josh Clark? Right.
41:49 Speaker 02 So, plus $20 an hour. Uh, but here's the thing, and this is something that I bet 95% of human beings don't realize. When you were sitting on that plane and those doors are open and they're getting you your first-class drinks or they're helping you put your bags away.
42:04 Josh Clark? Yep.
42:05 Speaker 02 And you're complaining because you don't have a pillow and coach, they're doing that for almost free because the only hours that they get paid for at that rate are flight hours.
42:15 Josh Clark? Yeah, when it says the boarding door is now closed, the clock just started for them.
42:19 Speaker 02 Never knew that.
42:20 Josh Clark? No, I didn't either. They get something like depending on the airline, maybe a dollar fifty to a dollar ninety-five an hour for the pre, the boarding stuff, the pre, while the door is open stuff, I guess is what you call it.
42:34 Speaker 02 Yeah, so like next time you're sitting on the tarmac and you're delayed for two hours.
42:38 Josh Clark? Uh huh.
42:38 Speaker 02 And you're super grumpy, think about that flight attendant who is getting paid almost nothing to be dealing with how grumpy you are.
42:46 Josh Clark? If the boarding door is closed, they would be getting paid, right?
42:49 Speaker 02 No, they said in here if flight delays, they like flight time is the only thing that matters.
42:54 Josh Clark? I thought it was once the door is closed. So if the door is closed and you go out to the runway and you're just sitting there on the runway, they would be getting paid. I thought.
43:02 Speaker 02 That's not what it said.
43:03 Josh Clark? Somebody let us know.
43:04 Speaker 02 Because it said in the article, if next time you're on a big flight delay, think about the fact that they're not making any money.
43:10 Josh Clark? I know you're, I know.
43:11 Speaker 02 And that's probably why the airline put it in there because can you imagine how much money they would have to pay in flight attendants for flight delays?
43:17 Josh Clark? Yeah, but it's not like the flight attendants are just like, I'm off the clock. Don't bother me. Once we get into the air, you can bother me.
43:24 Speaker 02 I know.
43:25 Josh Clark? You don't hear that, you know, so they should be paying them for that.
43:27 Speaker 02 Hey, I agree.
43:28 Josh Clark? You know? I think we should band together and start a social movement here.
43:33 Speaker 02 I wonder why they should tip flight attendants too.
43:36 Josh Clark? Yeah, that's not a thing.
43:37 Speaker 02 They should stand, you know, the end when they stand there and say, good day and I hope you enjoyed your flight?
43:41 Josh Clark? Mm-hmm.
43:41 Speaker 02 They should be holding a jar, as far as I'm concerned.
43:43 Josh Clark? Shaking it?
43:44 Speaker 02 Yeah, throw five bucks in there on your way out.
43:46 Josh Clark? Bye-bye.
43:47 Speaker 02 I think that'd be great.
43:48 Josh Clark? Uh, you remember Tina Muklow?
43:50 Speaker 02 Oh, sure.
43:51 Josh Clark? The hero of the D.B. Cooper heist?
43:52 Speaker 02 Yeah.
43:53 Josh Clark? He tried to give her ten, twenty thousand dollars and she said, no tipping allowed.
43:57 Speaker 02 That's right.
43:58 Josh Clark? What a hero.
43:59 Speaker 02 And quite often, flight attendants are the heroes on many flights, whether it is dealing with. Literally a terrorist.
44:05 Josh Clark? Yeah.
44:06 Speaker 02 And trying to manage that situation bravely. Or, uh, God forbid, some sort of incident in the air with, um, you know, like with the, with the plane itself. But at the very least, those jerks on planes that think they can just talk to people however they want.
44:22 Josh Clark? Yeah.
44:22 Speaker 02 They gotta put up with a lot in a very cramped space.
44:25 Josh Clark? Um, very early on in, in flight attendant history, I don't know if we said or not, you said that Ellen Church was a registered nurse, but that was par for the course for early flight attendants. They had to be registered nurses.
44:36 Speaker 02 Makes sense.
44:37 Josh Clark? Um, there was one named Nellie Granger, who, uh, was a TWA flight attendant. And she, um, was on a flight going to Pittsburgh, I believe, in 1936, and it crashed. And she pulled a couple of passengers to safety and, um, made it down the mountain to get help and went back up with the rescuers to help, um, minister to the, the, the two injured passengers whose lives she saved.
45:06 Speaker 02 And she got 30 cents an hour.
45:08 Josh Clark? She got a trip to the Indies with her aunt.
45:12 Speaker 02 That's nice.
45:13 Josh Clark? By TWA, yeah.
45:16 Josh Clark? I got a couple more things.
45:17 Speaker 02 Sure.
45:18 Josh Clark? There's some crazy stuff that, uh, flight attendants have seen. The one that gets me, though, is dead bodies on planes that are purposefully brought onto planes. Not people who die.
45:31 Speaker 02 Yeah.
45:31 Josh Clark? Apparently Singapore Airlines has what's called a corpse closet on their planes to stow a passenger who might die midair.
45:38 Speaker 02 That's nice.
45:39 Josh Clark? They're in the minority there. I think they might be peculiar with that. But sometimes, because shipping a body is very expensive, it can run into the thousands and thousands of dollars.
45:47 Speaker 02 Yeah.
45:48 Josh Clark? Some people say, well, it'd be cheaper if I just bought a plane ticket or put my mother in a garment bag and just smuggle her body on board and took her where she's going to be buried myself.
45:59 Speaker 02 Yeah.
46:00 Josh Clark? That a guy got caught doing that in Miami. Um, there was, in this mental floss article, there was, um, the person who was interviewed said her roommate, um, found a mother and a daughter trying to smuggle the dead father onto a flight.
46:14 Speaker 02 Yeah.
46:15 Josh Clark? Just in a wheelchair and said that he had the flu, but he was clearly dead and they had to stop the plane mid-flight.
46:20 Speaker 02 Wow. Maybe he did have the flu.
46:23 Josh Clark? No, he was dead.
46:24 Speaker 02 No, I mean, maybe that's how he died.
46:26 Josh Clark? Oh, maybe he previously had the flu. Yeah. They could have been like, give us a kernel of truth to what we just said.
46:33 Josh Clark? That's it. Oh, and don't order Diet Coke because apparently it takes the longest to stop fizzing on a trolley. Okay?
46:40 Speaker 02 That's science.
46:42 Josh Clark? If you want to know more about flight attendants, just chat up a flight attendant. I'm sure they'd love to tell you some great stories. And in the meantime, it's time for listener mail.
46:52 Speaker 02 I'm gonna call this PSA about the flu. Because we had someone, Courtney Harmuth, who was a sconny, who says this. "Hey, guys, wanted to basically give you a PSA about how dangerous the flu can be. In 2012, I was a healthy high school freshman, was suddenly stricken with a horrible digestive distress, a chills fever, coughing after a week or so. My parents took me to the GP, and I was told to go to the hospital for observation and get an IV. What was supposed to be one night turned into a month. I'd contracted the swine flu."
47:27 Josh Clark? Oh, my gosh.
47:28 Speaker 02 "That first night, my vitals went crazy, and I ended up having to be kept in my local hospital for two weeks. During my stay, I developed pneumonia as a complication. Soon after that, fluid began to fill my lungs, and I had to be helicoptered to a larger hospital in Madison."
47:43 Speaker 02 She said being in the helicopter was pretty sweet, though.
47:46 Josh Clark? Oh, really?
47:46 Speaker 02 Yeah, even though, you know.
47:47 Josh Clark? I would think being sick in a helicopter would not be comfortable.
47:50 Speaker 02 I think she's a bright-side person. "For about 20 minutes, I was only taking in about 30% oxygen. My parents were told I could have brain damage or may even die. Upon my arrival to the larger hospital, I was immediately put into a medically induced coma for 11 days."
48:04 Josh Clark? Oh, my god.
48:04 Speaker 02 "I was finally taken out of my coma. I had atrophied and weighed a measly 95 pounds. At 12 years old, I had to relearn how to walk, write, and use basic motor skills. I am extremely lucky, and I am completely recovered from the ordeal, did not suffer any long-term health effects. And now, at 23 years old, I've thankfully not had the flu since. I tell this to everyone to say, please get vaccinated against the flu. The flu vaccine doesn't just protect you, but also your kids, parents, friends, and coworkers. Really love your show. I want to thank you for doing such a great job."
48:38 Speaker 02 About important and sometimes hilarious topics. That is our Wisconsinite fan, Courtney Harmuth.
48:44 Josh Clark? Thanks a lot, Courtney. Glad you made it through that one. That was pretty scary.
48:48 Speaker 02 Yeah, we said the flu could be dangerous. There you have it.
48:50 Josh Clark? Courtney just proved it, everybody. If you want to tell us a great story that is harrowing and amazing, we want to hear it. Or if you have a good flight attendant story, that's a good one, too. You can send us an email to [email protected] .
49:08 Speaker 03 Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
49:23 Josh Clark? Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota Fordibility, 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. Introducing Voices of VivGart. VivGart is also known as its generic name, Fgart Tigamod Alpha F-Cab, and this new show features firsthand stories from people living with a rare disease.
50:05 Josh Clark? Hosted by Andrew Stratton, these perspectives highlight that life is more than a moment, a condition, or a tough day. Living with a rare disease can be challenging, but it does not define the Voices of VivGart. In these episodes, they share their stories, from diagnosis to working with their care team on their treatment plan. Listen to Voices of VivGart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
50:28 Speaker 05 In Orlando, meetings reach another level. Thanks to a growing list of award-winning restaurants, a world-class convention center, a great hotel community, easy access through the airport, and of course, the weather. Andrew Moyes, VP of Fan Expo HQ, had this to say about Orlando. Often, we will bring our entire team to Orlando for the event, and that includes our executive-level team members. And we're able to give them a great experience with luxury hotels, special restaurants, all those key things to feed into the proper executive experience. Orlando's easy airport access and close proximity to hotels and transportation make it a top choice for hosting major events. And while you may know Orlando for its attractions, industries like healthcare, aerospace and
51:10 Speaker 05 advanced manufacturing make it a hub for cutting-edge businesses. Or in the words of Mr. Moyes, Orlando really can be that destination where you can innovate, collaborate, and look to the future. And that's what makes Orlando unbelievably real. Learn more at orlandoforbusiness.com.
51:28 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
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