Episode 39: ASMR

quiet at times and sometimes it's loud. Um. You know, I do know someone who hates a s MR. So I and that person did pick it. It's Danny. She hates a SMR, so I think you know, in her honor, I'm just gonna do it like this for the rest of the episode. The binural mix that I hew you doing, little mom, I'm here, I'm back. I made it back to the show. It's been sh wrong. I've been on her show. How Naomi now she's in college, daughter Naomi should college. She's in college now. It's been show long s.

I'm being on there NERD Tactic Podcast. During that whole bit, Danny was moving her arms like she was using the cane, but it just looked like she was going to ready to shoot some dice. I was like, all right, you want to lose your money, this is how much I love you. I'll not that literally anyone at because I don't think anyone. Maybe one person might have asked a

long time ago, but I can't remember. I thought it would be fascinating to look at the world of a s mr um because it is technically, I think a part of the nerd community. I considered part of the nerd community. It's definitely part of the YouTube community that's really taken off its existed before YouTube. But yeah, but that's kind of what made it explode. I don't like it.

I in our group chat of this podcast that we have with Dan and our producer and Anna i Um, I said I would rather us going over hardcore porn um SMR. I'm one of those people that find it what's the word uncomfortable. That's the word I'm looking for. And it's got to find your right trigger. See, because I was the same way, and I was like, this,

this is what's Bernain doing it for? But then I found out slime and scratches is where Well, the thing that I do want to say is that a lot of these YouTubers are upset and rightfully so, that they're being flagged as it being just a sexual fetish. And they do a lot of people use a s MR to sleep, to relax and sleep, and and there are a lot of people that use it for sexual reasons.

And that's fine too, and that's true, Iffy. Yeah, like we said with Roger Craigsmith, some of that sonic art you know, some of the sonic sonic art on Tumbler, which Tumbler is now taking off porn anyways, Yeah, a s MR, as if you said it is autonomous sensory meridian response. Essentially, it is. This is the definition, is an experience characterized by a static like or tingling sensation on the skin that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine.

We know it as people talking very quietly on YouTube, very very quietly, like like like this quietly, and you can hear my mouth sounds. You can hear when my my mouth comes together. But you might somebody might be like, yep, that's it. I need Danny to start a YouTube play I guess I could do an sm R Patreon. Maybe, I don't know. I have some projects I need to get funded. Um, I think i'd be good at it too, especially this voice that I have. But voice I think too.

So yeah, if you tell me what we're what are some of your favorite videos? Like what are you into? Well, you know, I mean, what are you what do you like to watch with a sm R. Let's not get into what you're Well, it's too general of a question with with a sm R. I found that it is

like The Slimes. And I found it because I was like at a party, and you know how you go to a party, the conversation is kind of all kind of die out and you talk to everyone that you know, and you know, you're like, all right, well let me bust out this phone and you know, use this until somebody tries to shame me for using AM at the party and I tripped across it was so random. It was on the Explore page, but it was a slime Instagram channel and for some reason I had like, oh,

I didn't have headphones. I was watching it and then like I was watching the Slimes and I was like, oh, this is oddly pleasing to look at, but it said a S A SMR, and then I kind of put the phone up to my ear and I was like, oh, this is tight. So yeah, I can't remember. I think Danielle Radford, who is one of our close friends. She was on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode. Yes, she likes she like, She's openly said this, so I'm not

outing her. She likes listening to people eating sandwiches, and that, to me is how I figured out that it was sexual. I thought it was just like, oh, yeah, okay. I didn't really think anything of it. And then when I heard that of like people with beards eating sandwiches, I was like, oh, oh gotcha. Yeah okay, but yeah, let's go, let's get into uh a s MR. So although the term a s MR and the niets YouTube community are

relatively new, the sensation itself is arguably not. There's no actual record of a s MR existing until a few years ago because people had no way of really talking about it. The sheer volume of a s MR videos on YouTube, though, is a testament to the thousands, I would say, millions of people who feel these tinglies and uh,

I don't know they enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah, uh and it's and it is crazy because it has like blown up and it's been interesting to see kind of where it started, which was I feel like a lot of the videos kind of focused on the whispering kind of touching. Yeah, whispering, but like it's kind of blown up and there's so many likes. Oh wait, I have it? Wait hang on, oh yeah, you know what I feel like if wispy, I mean they did the entire a song like that. I bet that was you know, so I'm looking at

a billboard. This is an article on Billboard. It was the ten times whispering and rap songs unintentionally created an a SMR experience. You know, hip hop might have been, it might have been started it, especially though, because that's a little sexual. You know, that's a little sexy. Sexy. Well, what's the number one pick on that? Let's see what is another? Can you think of others? I mean that wasn't oh David Banner, yes, yes, play yes, wait no, oh no, this is the edited one. Okay, you would

have been late by the time you realize that. You said, oh wait right after where two spice? You're right, and that was a good call on their part because we can't play that on here. Number one, run girl, we're trying to get your body wet. Yeah we can say that, you know. Number one I don't with is Ice Ice Baby. I've yeah, no, no, no, but yeah, I totally agree too. Is the Whisper song from Yanang Twins and three is David Banners play, which we're both both parts of my

high school experience. Um yeah, well, because I mean my big thing was the like a pimp that was David Banners, like big banger for me, but but definitely by like I was well aware of David Banner by the time play came out, But like that was the one in high school I remember mostly because that was I got it.

Got it as a ringtone for my Boost mobile phone and I was playing it because someone showed me how to hack your Boost mobile phone to like put free ring tones on and I was I was the King Frog, remember that, Like commercially, I don't know how that frog was like the baby Shark of our generation because everyone was all about that dumb frog, and I was like, how did this get so popular? Like I understand that

Ali McBeal, baby, I don't understand that Frog. Yeah. Yeah, for those of you who don't know what we're talking about, Andrew, you're younger than us. Um. It was this weird like cartoon frog where you could get your ringtone essentially, you could like, wouldn't it be a number that you set up or you texted or called or something, and they it would like give met you. It was called crazy Frog. Yeah. Do you remember while we're on this kick, do you

remember the Gerbil song or what was it? Like? Didn't eat that? You don't remember that? Well? Aware of that weird ass song, people have either tuned in or turned out. Oh all right, you should be able to Oh my gosh, this is what happens when I'm delirious from shooting for two weeks and you bring me back on this show. This not only so so I buried the lead here. I found someone who uploaded the original commercial. But Crazy Frog, which is the name of it, has its own Vivo

and so is it still alive. It's still posting. It's under the first video. Okay, gonna eat that? You know, I feel like I've seen this frog recently, like oh, this was from nine years ago, but it's also copied written Crazy Frog commercial jamster that was it. Okay, let me see this is from two thousand and five from your respond Okay, so you would text crazy one if you wanted one of the like one of those songs, and easy too if you wanted a different one. Anyways,

that was our life back then. Wow, didn't date that? D No, d that didn't go and we'll pay whatever dumb amount of money. Are you doing it right now? Do you think that it still exists out all right? Live on air? You're hearing right now if this jamster frog works crazy that's so watch you like give money to I don't know, hell, you've given one million dollars to Isis. I was like, oh no, all right, let's let's really reeling this back into a s MR um.

It's a great so. The a s m R community is a great example of how the rise of social media and online communities and the Internet in general has transformed the human experience. It was so fascinating. I don't know if you saw Iffy today. I posted about not ghosting people because people are people, and I think instead of ghosting or ignoring someone, you can literally say hey,

you know that you want to move on? Instead of doing that some passive aggressive stuff because that that person on the other side of the phone has, you know, feelings and value and worth and the world is no. No. I was trying to say. I was trying to I'm trying to tell the community here as a whole. I was trying to tell the community here as a whole um and uh that it's the adult thing to do would be to just be like, hey, I'm sorry. You

know I've I'm going to move on from this. What I mean here, I'm here for you, and you're right. What I meant to say was somebody came back at me and said, well, I saw on the Today Show they interviewed people from dating apps and they said they've ghosted people and it doesn't bother them. And I want to be like one not going to take dating advice from people on the Today Show. But that doesn't mean that it's okay. But also if you talk about because

you can't just use that okay. If you're on a dating app and someone goes to you're like, all right, we're here to play ball. When someone you know in real life and I know it's bad because someone's been trying for the longest to shoot a video at BuzzFeed where they're like, um, where the casting notes that they send internally to all of us is like, have you ghosted someone? I'm doing a video where people like go up to the person that they've ghosted and like, you know,

basically confronted and apologize and stuff. And that person has been trying to shoot that video for like I think at least two months now, because no one who wants to admit that. Yeah. Yeah, But what I was going to say is because they said that this has transformed the human experience, and I was going to say that

person said, now we're really antisocial. That was their response to me about why people ghost or whatever, which I'm not disagreeing with, but because they're saying that people ghost because we're antisocial. Yeah, And I think that's one of those things where it's like, yeah, you kind of have to get over it. You can't, Like I, I feel like we're allowing too many excuses. I agree. Um, And so what I was gonna say this relates in some way to a sm R is that I think the

sounds of human touch. That's so this is like a Black Mirror episode. I think the sounds of human touch. Um, something about that that has that side of the human experience that even though you might people might be antisocial, they're able to find some comfort in. That's why now we've seen the rise of like professional snugglers, which is another thing that I've not smugglers. Snugglers that I've tweeted about, and people like that's a thing. It is a thing

where you can pay someone to cuddle. When I made a joke about it, I don't think the men that wrote me understood what cuddling means. That it's not me having sex with you. I don't do it, But I just joked of like, hey, I want that as a job, Like you know, um, have someone pay me to snuggle them. They're like, i'll pay you. I'm like, yeah, you're saying it though in a way that you think that it's you know, sexual, when it's just supposed to be transact Anyways,

Frog update, OK, I got terrible news for everyone. Shot. They didn't just take your money and run. Now, they didn't take my money. It belongs to Etna, the prescription the company Etna r X. This automated system doesn't recognize your message. Sign into your member website if you have any questions about your prescriptions. And it's funny to think that my favorite, uh not my favorite, that my initial message was crazy one. So now it's like give me the crazy ones, give me a crazy peel. I'm doing

drugs anyway. Um So, what was previously private and personal is now public and common. Experiences that were not discussable have been named and identified people who are alone in their feelings as we're talking about of how may it be you know, now people are able to share this community online essentially. Yeah. So there was a pure viewed article on a SMR by Emma Barrett and Nick Davis and they're basically trying to show why the recent trend

could be important and helpful from a medical stamp. Interesting. Yeah, and they're saying it's a SMR was previously unstudied sensory phenomenon. So and like you were saying, I think it was because you know, it's it's interesting because I think it's all kind of fresh and new, especially with it being unstudied.

But I do think it was like this thing people would experience and you know, you didn't fit feel a need to explain it to anyone because it might have been weird or it might have come from, you know, some whispering in your ear right before you're about to do that thing, and you're like, of course, this feels wonderful. You know. Uh, you know what's so fascinating. They keep saying, like in this article, it's it's the static like sensation

across the scalp. You know what that reminds me of this same right he whoever feels a prickly things from the back of your dad, whoever feels a cleansing. Yeah, yeah, you're you're talking about six Yes, so a SMR was now just um go SMR. Yeah, this the prickly sensation against your scalp, the back of your neck, and at times further areas in response. So now so yeah, So essentially a sm R like if you watch and we'll play some videos for y'all, but if you watch it now,

it's everything under the sun. It's people like with what I've noticed is a lot of women with manicured nails because they make that sound like on they'll scratch their nails across hair brushes or tap it on, you know, piece of plastic or something. The sensation itself is widely reported to be accompanied by feelings of relaxation and well being. The study that if he was talking about identifies several common triggers used to achieve a sm R, including whispering,

personal attention. That is another thing that I've noticed in the videos, crisp sounds, and very slow movements. And the data obtain also illustrated that temporary improvements and symptoms of depression and chronic pain and those who do engage in a SMR and a high prevalence of synesthesia within a sample suggests a possible link between a SMR and synesthesia

similar to that of miss aphonia. Links between the number of effective triggers and heightened flow states suggest that flow may be necessary to achieve sensation with a s MR. So you know that that can be a tip to any you know what what would you call the a s MR or you know the person making them? Well, anyway,

that's a tip to you. But here's another tip. How about you listen to these messages right before we come back so you know where to find us that and welcome back, okay, So if you so, I found another reason why people thought that a sm R was sexual. Is many colloquial and why are you giggling because you said it in a way that you're like you were just waiting, like as soon as as soon as this breaks over, I'm about to hit you all with these facts. Okay, listen.

So many colloquial informal terms used and proposed between two thousand seven and two thousand ten included reference to orgasm, and there was during that time a significant majority objection to this use among those active and online discussions because again people are saying that they just they don't only use a sm R for sexual arousal um people of a SMR wanting to know we're not horny. This is this is this reminds me of the anime community. Listen,

it's not all tennacle porn. Yeah, it is somewhat technical port there was there was that that period where when nerdy wasn't InVogue, where like there were the people when you you're like, oh yeah, you like that, you like that? Like, No, those are two different things. Like saying like people who like anim may like hinta is just being like if someone's like, hey man, yeah I really like move movies, I'm like a cinephiles, like, oh you like porn, you

like making love to movies. However, by a division had in fact occurred within the a sm R community over the subject of sexual arousal. So this created a segment

of videos categorized as a SMR erotica. Yeah, there was a video I saw a while back of this woman doing a SMR on YouTube where some of the comments were very critical because I guess she was like wearing like a low cut top and all this stuff, and they're like, oh, we feel like you don't have to be that sexual, and then there was a fight in the community. I was like, let her do what she wants, which there's truth to that, but their motives I don't

think are the same. Their motives are not let's give her autonomy their their motives is I like that. But so it is like interesting that it is kind of something at the forefront of the community. And I wonder if that is because you know you, I mean, it kind of removes some of the stigma I guess you can say around the A S m R where like if you were to tell someone you're in the a SMR, they'll be like, oh, that's sexual sound thing. You're like,

you like bearded men eating sandwiches. Um, Well, I think actually one of the hugest reasons is because it changes their ads. So because now if you are categorized as a sexual, it's going to change your your ads. And we'll get into that as well. Yeah, so if you sent me a video, it is a s MR. Amy. This is from November, so not too long ago. It has over a million views. Um, it's a s MR very intense breathing sounds to relax tingle with me, English whispering,

and she is wearing a low cut top. She is a well endowed woman, which is fine and should be acceptable on the internet. I I got ahead start on these, so I just want to talk about these, uh the specific one because you know, there's a million different types of trash comments and you know, I the only ones I really want to point out are the ones that are like seem offended by it. Be like reap beats, Uh said, Uh, this wouldn't be a bad a SMR if she wore an actual shirt. But what does that mean?

Because a SMRs for listening. That's you snatched the words right out of my mouth, which is so funny. Uh Yeah. And then the one right after that was like who came straight to the comments to see what people wrote, and it was like, yeah, me too, um, because it's like it's so funny that that, like people are so mad in their life. People'll get so worked up over boobs, which are just boobs, and like half the population has boobs and and all of the population uses them to

eat typically at some point. You know, it's um interesting if you I do know that some of the terminology change in the a s MR community regarding this because it was perceived as sexual. Yeah. So the initial consensus among the a SMR community was that the name should not pose a high risk of the phenomenon being perceived as sexual, and so because of that consensus, Jennifer Allen

proposed autonomous sensory meridian response. Alan chose the words intending or assuming them to have the following specific meaning autonomous, spontaneous, self governing, or with or without control. The sensory is pertained to the census, of course, the meridians signifying a peak, climax, or highest point of development, and response referring to the

experience triggered by something external or internal. Then Alan went ahead and verified it into two thousand and sixteen interview that she purposely selected these terms because they're more objective, comfortable, and clinical than alternative terms for the sensation uh and Alan explained that she selected the word meridian to replace the word orgasm due to its meanings to the point of period greatest prosperity. UH So, thus create the term

autonomous sensory meridian response and it's acronym a SMR. We're both adopted by the community. And it seemed like everyone else commenting on this phenomenon. Yeah, so if we were to go back to the actual history of trying to

track down maybe where it started. The contemporary history of a s MR began on October nineteen, two thousand seven, when a twenty one year old registered user of a discussion forum for health related subjects at a website called Steady Health with the user name Okay whatever, submitted a post in which they described having experienced a specific sensation since childhood, comparable to the stimulated by tracing fingers along

the skin. Remember used to do that when like they would like spell the alphabet or something on your back and you had to guess what letter it was, or the crack and egg on your head and let dripped down. There Actually are a bunch of videos that have something similar with running their fingers down their scalp, so yet often triggered by seemingly random and unrelated non haptic events such as watching a puppet show or being read a story.

So essentially something like that, like being read a story, is having a reaction in Someone replied to this post, which indicated that a significant number of others experienced the sensation as well. They also talked about having a response to witnessing mundane events, and that is a lot of a SMR videos. It's like eating a sandwich, that's a mundane event, you know, doing your nails, brushing your hair, like those are all everyday events that people are having.

But when you use these microphones that are picking it up to the level that it is that you can hear every sound and every mouth sound, people are having a reaction in their body and or they just find

it relaxing and or sexual. But if we wanted to go further back, a writer, Clemens J. Set suggested that the paths from the novel Mrs Dollaway, authored by Virginia Wolf, which was published in nineteen twenty five, describe something kind of comparable in the passage from Mrs Dollaway that Sets is referring to a nursemaid speaks to a man who is her patient and deeply, softly like a mellow organ, but with a roughness in her voice, like a grasshoppers,

which rasps his spine deliciously and sent running up to his brain waves of sound. You know, this kind of sounds like a fan, like some of those Lemon fan fictions that I used to read in a middle school rasp his spine delicious But yeah, no, that sounds like if I was trying to be extra when describing a SMR.

That's that's the words I'd use. Yeah. According to Sets, this citation generally alludes to the effectiveness of the human voice and soft or whispered vocal sounds, specifically as a trigger of a s m R for many of those who experience it. So let's up play them some. You think we should play them some? Yeah, so this is from gentle whispering a s m R. So you will have to, Uh, We'll go ahead and play a couple

of I'll make sure that I'm relatively quiet. We'll play you a couple of videos, and then you can turn your volume back down because I don't want to. I don't want you to have to turn it up to listen to this and then be crushed. Your ear jumps. So this is from Gentle Whispering a s MR. This is from It has over twenty million views. It is a video called oh such a good three D sound, a SMR video one of my fades tapping sounds to remind me of the sound of to me something Dando.

So she is this is Danny again. She is essentially just using her fingernails to tap a brush a hair brush, and it makes that sound. I'm going to switch over to another video, which is a SMR ultimate head and scalp massage roleplay realistic by Binarial Sounds for relaxation. This has over four million views. From Heather Feather a s MR. Okay, right there you go. So it's essentially her scratching her scalp.

This is from a SMR Requests and its face massage water sounds soft speaking, So I will say that at the start of each of these videos, it's um they're speaking very softly and introducing what they're going to do in the video. Typically it's going to still really light gentle circles, your cheek. She's using am one of those poor like an exfoliator, a vibrating exfoliator. Face Massager's I used one of these at home myself. I have one more. I have one more, which is pretty funny. It is

one that Universal put out. I think this year was it? This year? It was this year. It's the Grinch eating a raw onion and her layer, multiple layers. I think I need to have a nipple. Oh my god, it's just him staring at the camera. Why eating an onion? But do you hear all those sounds? Okay, so this is Danny. I'm going to stop the videos now and we can turn the volume back up. Do you hear

all of those sounds? So when he was taking that bite, like each of those little like crevice is essentially all of those little raspy sounds. That is what people enjoy. I mean, they enjoy so many different aspects of a SMR. But essentially, if you're making an a SMR video, that is what you're all the different sounds, The crispness, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, it's like like they say, or like Danny was saying earlier, is that

you know those sounds. A lot of the sounds are oftentimes ones that are that can be linked to physical touch, just like the head scratching one from earlier and on and so forth. So you know, anything that almost has a tactile feel to the sound is is let people go crazy. So here's one trying a smart for the first time with my dad. It seems very on brand for me. Um. So we're gonna take a break and when we come back, we'll talk about some of the

health benefits that they've found from a smart. Right after these messages and we're back. And uh, I realized because I was talking with Iffy during the break about how I mentioned that the front pagers all women. What I meant to say is I think that a lot of times women like we see with the cosplay community with women, is any time that they do anything like that, it's automatically categorized as sexual. Um So I understand their argument.

And there you know that just because these women are speaking softly into microphone or tapping a hair brush or you know, whatever they're doing, it's seen as um as sexual, even though that might not be their intent. A lot of them do say like so this front page that I'm looking at says a SMR Christmas triggers to help you sleep, a sm R relaxing triggers to help you sleep. So you know, even though some of them are clearly labeled to help you sleep, it doesn't mean that everyone's

gonna use them the same way, I guess. So just something I wanted to point out, and that they've been doing studies that a SMR is actually helpful to people's health. So Forbes reported that researchers from the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom wanted to find out whether a SMR tingles might also confer other benefits or it's just all about the feeling, and to investigate they conducted a

two part study. So in the first part, more than a thousand people watched a s m R triggering videos and other videos without a sm R elements, and then they completed an online survey the frequency of their sensations while why watching the videos and their emotional responses such as excitement, calmness, sadness, etcetera. And people who watched the SMR videos answered follow up questions about which part of

the videos induced the sensations. The results showed that the participants who experienced the most frequent A SMR sensations also reported the highest levels of excitement and calmness. Conversely, they also said they experienced the lowest levels of sadness and feelings of stress. Fascinating because it is calming, it is relaxing. Yeah.

And the next part of the study moved the experiments into a lab to more closely control the conditions that they were gonna put them under, and researchers recruited a mix of ten A SMR and non A SMR experience participants that took baseline measurements of their heart rates skin conductance responses a way to basically measure your emotional arousal. The participants then watched the A SMR and control videos and in the first part of the study, reported on

the frequency of the sensation. Then the researchers measured their heart rates and skin conductance responses again while they watched the videos to compare against the baseline measurements. The results ended up showing that the participants with the history of experiencing A s MR sensations had a significantly lower heart rate and average of three point four teen beats per minute lower when watching a SMR videos than those who

hadn't previously experienced the sensation. Then those who hadn't previously experienced the sensations. The a SMR experiencing participants also had a higher reading on the skin conduction on the skin conductance test, indicating greater emotional responses. Results across both parts of the studies suggest that people who will experience a SMR benefit emotionally and physiologically when watching videos that trigger

the sensations. They report at the highest levels of positive emotion and lowest levels of negative emotions, and their heart rates dropped to levels comparable to what has been observed during mind yes, mindful meditation. Yeah. One catch is that this all only appears to hold true for people with a history of experiencing a SMM. Got it. Yeah, you know, I was going to say some of these I don't. I don't listen to a sm R, but I do

do hypnosis and uh meditation. I have a meditation app called Calm, which I highly recommend because I hate meditating. I'm one of those people that it's so everyone's like just doing it's so easy. No, it's not being alone with your thoughts, sitting sitting, still for ten minutes is torture. But calm app I feel like helps a lot because

they'll kind of talk you through it. Um. But I also do hypnosis, and there's a lot of hypnosis if you're interested on YouTube, and it's kind of similar a little bit different, but it is someone kind of whispering because I'll do hypnosis for sleep, um, and it's supposed to help you relax. They'll they will walk, they'll do a body scan sometimes while they'll walk you through your body, relaxing different parts of your body to help you sleep. Uh.

And since they are whispering, it is somewhat similar. So that is really fascinating for me. Someone that said that they didn't like a SMR to find out that people that are doing it have these instances of positive emotions and lower levels of negativity. I might need to get on it and or start my own account. I can help you find your trigger. I can help you find your trigger. Dang. Yeah, and you just need to be more open with myself not doing anything for you. I

don't mind it. I don't mind it. Um. I like rain, so my meditation apps normally have rain. I did want to say. So this was from an article from Forbes. Uh, which so, yeah, I did want to say, well, I did want to say, actually before we move on, that we forgot the godfather of a s m R, who is Bob Ross. Bob Ross is known as the godfather of a s MR. Um. You know in the community, I think for a lot of people that he was someone that people would listen to to go to sleep.

That sounds bad, but not not not bad. You know, he was relaxing. He was a lot of people would listen to him or listen to his tapes and watch him and stuff because he was relaxed, relaxing. Yeah, so they they liked his soft speaking and some of his mouth sounds and whatnot. Um. So this is an article

from another article from Forbes. It says, is there any money to be made in a s m R. Let me go ahead and just skip this whole article, And yes, so there's a couple of ways to make money in a sm R when obviously having viral videos like the ones that we showed you that had like four million views. The only problem is is that sometimes if they're flagged as being sexual, that can't affect their monetary income. So some uh, a s mr r's a s mars have

opened patreons. Patreon has also gotten weird about their sexual stuff as well though, So and again I'm not tying a sm R too, you know, sex work and and that, but it just seems that everywhere people try to go it seems to be kind of blocked. So that was just what I was going to note. Yeah, it looks like you can also get it maybe on other platforms such as like iTunes and Spotify. I hadn't even thought of that, but that makes sense. That makes sense to

have a SMR and those well. Also, it's like it's crazy how like you know, once things kind of blow up as a way people sleeping, you can probably get a SMR on Alexa. I know that we do rain sounds because Naomi. It helps her. It helps her. I have a question if he's so, if an attractive woman is has a lowish cut top and is has you know, her her manicured nails and is wrapping on a brush or something like that, and it's flagged as being sexual,

do you think that that would happen to a man? No, because I mean I feel like do you can probably even do it shirtless? You know, and it wouldn't be set. Yeah, now there's I mean, it's very obvious that there's a bias against women and a lot of the sex sex working,

sex work banning across platforms. I mean, like Tumbler literally said female presenting nipples, which was absurd because that's kind of been the I feel part of of the debate behind like banning nipples that was that that's been shied away from, is that it's like, oh, you'll bann male nipples, but not female nipples. And for Tumbler to just outright be like female presenting nipples, which is basically literally in that same rule saying like oh, shirtless men are fine,

just not women. So I think I think that that hammer tends to fall the same way, you know, just if it's not as bad, it doesn't look that and I think it's it's a double standard. It's unfair and it sucks, especially in this case where like I mean, not this isn't to say that you know, if you if you are doing sex work, you should be banned

from doing it. But then the fact that it's like affecting women who aren't even in the sex work industry, it just seems like an excuse, and it seems like no one should care because the majority of women do it, so that sucks. But I mean, like the core of that also comes from like SESTA and fosta UM, which was the law that passed that basically allowed the government to like find and shut down websites if you know, if they find if someone is trafficked sexually on it.

So that kind of closed down places like Craigslist because even though a lot of you know, sex workers used it, if one person was found to be using it for trafficking, then now they get to punish the site. And that's just kind of a way to get the sites to bully people out of you know, harboring a safe space for sex workers to work. I mean, you know, I'm

sure butchering it. But that's the general gist of SESTA and FASTA, And it was voted on because you know, people here sex trafficking and obviously want to stop that, but it's been kind of used as a dog whistle to kind of shut down a lot of safe sex work. Yeah yeah, which leads to unsafe sex work. So yeah, so I don't know, it is it is interesting that, um, some of these studies that we can link in the notes that talk about how it reduces depression, anxiety, panic

attacks UM, and helps those susceptible to insomnia. I do want to say, if you're having better sleep, that is going to affect your mental health. That is going to improve your mental health. So if you're someone that has difficulties sleeping and a smore helps you have a deeper sleep and a longer sleep, UM, then that would make sense that it would lower your depression, anxiety and panic attacks. UM. Also just having a calming I know for me using

my meditation app, we have one for panic attacks. It's like a ninety second or three minute like calming. You actually just watch a bubble and you breathe with the bubble. You watch the bubble span and you watch it decrease and UM. I can imagine that for those that are having panic attacks, putting on something calming like a SMR and listening to someone quietly, you know, helping you and

talking to you would would be helpful. So I am I'm going to you know, nineteen is the year that I accept a SMR and I'm such an open person, it's I really should There's no reason, Yeah, why shouldn't be in the a s m R community. SMR is a fun thing to try. It, I think, uh, you know we have We're gonna be dropping some YouTube channels in the footnotes for you to check out, just to see and you know, this has been a fun one.

Let us know what your triggers are or end up being, or if you found a s m R through this episode and found one that really works for you, let us know and we'll check it out and see if we match up anything you want to plug. Danny follow me at MS Danny Fernandez. I guess tell me, yeah, tell me what you're kind of? You'r a smart What you think that I would be into? Y'all listen to me. You've listened to me for almost a year. Now. What do you think that I would being? What would turn

me on to a SMR? I guess what do you think is like a welcoming, comforting thing for me to try? I guess I don't. Here's one of my pet peeves, people eating. I can't. This is why I don't like a smart I do not like the sound of people. I'm one of those people that like, if your spouse is you know, even though you've been dating them for like three years and they're right next to you and they're chewing allowed apple. I cannot handle it. I have to go in the other room. It's too much the

sounds of people eating loudly. Anyways, Well, and you know me, uh, January nine and twentie, Like I said last week, I will be at San Francisco sketch Fest doing the three shows as it stands that I know of. First one being me doing stand up live at the Alumo, second one being white women You're techoing friend live at sketch Us, and the last one is doing yo is this racist? Live at sketch Fest? So catch me there or I guess you can catch me later on yo is this racist? When?

When they released that live that But you know, it's probably fun to be there live. Feel that energy coming at your face. I saw Childish Gambino Monday night or that was last night. It's Tuesday, guys this week. Did you feel reinvigorated? Oh? Yeah, that It sent waves through my body seeing uh Childish and I'm ready. That's how I felt seen into the Spider verse. I felt like, yeah, there's a reason I'm doing this, and it's to get

more stories. You know, there's a reason why I'm here and trying to make TV and trying to make you know, both of us trying to make UM our creative endeavors of getting stories that haven't previously been able to be told and having characters that don't you know, haven't always been able to be represented out there. And it. I loved it. I cried. I cried. I cannot wait to see it. I was supposed to see it. I ended up missing the screening I was supposed to catch um.

And then in the year in the end of it all, Uh, you know, I saw I bumped into Demmy actually on my way here and he was going to go see that movie. Yeah, I was gonna say that. Um, I saw it like they So they let um like movie critics see it like two months in advance. That's how they know it's good when they when something so here's just a little inside thing. When something's not good, they either don't have a screening of it, or they'll do it the week of, like two days or something before,

so you don't really have time to do a review. Um. They let people see into the Spider verse like two months in advance. I saw it a month in advance. But even when I had saw a bunch of our friends had already seen it, like the month before, so they were like, it's good. Tell everybody. They even get early screenings at Regal for like they're like insider fans. I was like, yeah, they want people to see this. They're like they know it's good as they should. Um

cool on ah. Yeah. This has been a movie talk portion of our a smur podcast and I always just make you view, like in some screen stared