Josh and Chuck Make It Through Male Puberty

Southern Baptist home. I was taught this stuff by my uh preacher. Nope, they didn't talk about this stuff. That's my point. I was taught in health class. Yeah, um, by my pe teacher. This lady who seemed to struggle with teaching boys about puberty. I can I can't really blame her. She tried her best, but this is you know, when the pe teachers had to teach health as well, and I don't think that she got into that profession to teach health. She she was like, I like coaching volleyball,

but um, I don't like teaching boys about puberty. She seemed very uncomfortable. It comes with the job. Lady t s. Well, if you are a Jim coach and you're teaching a health class right now and you're using us to teach for you, you you owe some money. Agreed. So we are. We're doing a great job so far, if you ask me, I think so. And this is you know, I think we have a responsibility because I was raised in that thing where like, you know, my parents didn't teach me

this stuff. So I think it's important the kids. Uh, puberty is tough. I mean like it's important to normalize it and that kids know that these changes are happening and what they mean and healthy functions. You know. I think this is a bit of a service. It was, it is, it is. Yes, I was talking like we'd already finished finished, and this this article, by the way, it was written by the great Tom Sheath, did a

wonderful job. Chuck. Yes, did you know that over the last like hundred and fifty years, um, the average age of puberty in girls has dropped by like five or six years. Yeah, so in eighteen sixty the average age of monarchy, oh yeah, yeah, sixteen point six years old. That's pretty late. In two it was ten point five years old. It seems young, right, and everybody's like, what's

going on? It's probably the milk, like there's some horrible stuff going on, or they're saying, what's monarchy, Well, manarchy is the onset of menstruach for the first time in a girl. I think that came up in our totem Pole. It was a long time ago. Um, so this on side of monarchy has decreased by a lot and a lot of people are alarmed by it. But there are some evolutionary biologists out there who are saying, actually, settle down.

We think that this is closer to the normal time when puberty should come on, and that like sixteen points six is way delayed, and it was actually a relic, a remnant of changes that were brought about by a transition to agriculture. The result of higher infections and poor nutrition led to a later onset of monarchy. Well, it's pretty it's easy to say, well, the girls start puberty here and boys it's not quite as defined, but they think that probably boys age of onset for puberty has

gone back to as well. Yeah, so it's uh, we're going through puberty younger as young boys as well. Yeah, so even though it is very difficult to say this is and a boy starts puberty, that didn't stop some research, just especially a guy named Richard Tanner from trying. He came up with the Tanner scale. It is a scale of one to five and Roman numerals, and it's all based on the growth of your genitalia and pubic hair. Interesting,

and it's it's it's not completely subjective, but it's pretty subjective. Yeah. And you might have heard of the Tanner scale by seeing the posters in restaurants all around the country. Yes, right next to the employees must wash hands before returning to works exactly. All right, So we're talking about puberty, which is that transition um that all kids go through. We're talking about male puberty of course, in this case, just male puberty and this one yea, even though I

already talked about female puberty. Well, we should probably tackle female puberty at some point um. For for little boys, they generally, like you said, the time has shifted perhaps, but right now between the ages of nine in eighteen is when it starts through completion generally typically typically you can start earlier, it can go later, it can follow different courses. Sure, it moves at different speeds and different guys. Yes,

And I'm gonna say this a few times. If you are a boy out there and you're going through your changes in puberty at different rates than your friends, that is okay. Yeah, you're not a weirdo instincts, but it is very normal, that's right. And you just may you've heard of the term late bloomer. You may just be a late bloomer, and that's okay because you will bloom well and you might not even be a late bloomer

except for this month right next month. But it's kind of like you know that horse race that you can do with the spraying the Yeah, you squirt the water in the hole in the horse's gap exactly, and they kind of moved back and forth. That's a lot like puberty. Yeah, Like, once you've really got a bead on that water gun, that's when the horse really starts moving. But practice all

you want. You can squirt water and where, and it's not going to help accelerate your puberty, that's right, all right, So, uh, what happens the beginning of puberty, no matter when it starts, is going to get kicked off when a substance called ganado tropin is released. Um, I'm sorry, Canada. Tropin releasing hormone is released in the body. G n r H. That's the big that's the one that starts at all.

That's right. And apparently you have that stuff in your hypothalamus. Yeah, You've got all these things hormones in your body, just waiting, waiting the coming one another, like nitro glycerin coming together basically, so you've got g n r H and your hypothalamus and apparently it has to move to the pituitary gland for things to get triggered. So puberty is like a

Rube Goldberg esque process. Yeah. So, um, it takes something called g p R fifty four, which is another hormone, to coming contact with ganada trope and releasing hormone, and then all of a sudden things start up and that actually brew when that process happens. That's called gody. Oh really, yes, interesting. I think the reason monarchy was such a funny word to me back when we recorded that. I figured it

out all these years later because it sounds like malarkey. Yeah, which is just a funny word to me, because no one says malarkey, but I think it's a great word. So monarchy and malarkey is just a little too close for my taste to keep me from laughing, you know. All Right, So the stages of puberty, they're generally five, um, and they overlap and it's one just big awkward mess. But you can kind of break it down into five stages. The first one is gonna begin, like we said, around

nine or ten years old. Um, nine is a little early. Ten is um what they would consider normal. I guess sometimes it might happen as late as twelve to get things going, which by which time you're like, come on right start. I'll just remember being in school and some kids were like a foot taller than other ones, like my buddy Jim, I said, you know, like he had a mustache when he was like thirteen. Yeah, I know. I had a friend like that in third grade. Yeah.

It's crazy. Um. So again, different timetables for everybody, and it's all okay. Uh So when this g n r H is released in stage one, your testicles are going to start to mature and grow, uh, your body, your height, You're gonna start growing at about two inches per year at this point, which is pretty significant. Yeah, yeah, for sure, growing two inches in a year. When's the last time

you did that? I guess probably when I was like twelve, probably, although I never hit one of those growth spurts like a lot of uh no did you? Yeah here there really Yeah, I don't really just slow and steady wins the race. Yeah, I don't remember any Like I remember some of my friends that had um like they're owns would hurt and they would actually have those growing pains.

I never had that. Yeah, yeah, no, it wasn't. Yeah, but I remember coming back from the summer and a kid would have grown like six inches it seems like in several months. Then it would just blew my mind because I was and like I was a late bloomer and like drank wine from a deer skin. Now a yeah, so your testicles are growing, and because your testicles are growing, that means their house, the scrotum is also growing. And all this is because that go and add a chopin

releasing hormone started up. That's right, And it's no um accident that it starts with gonad of course, it's all linked um. So um, your your testicles are growing and maturing at this point, but you're not able to reproduce just yet, No way, No, that comes with a little later. And I had a question like, why aren't we born capable of reproduction? And I thought like I would find some stuff on it. All I could find was one single Yahoo Answers question, and everybody was like, what kind

of a stupid question is that? Basically, yeah, I guess it is kind of a stupid question. But the point is because you're not capable of taking care of yourself, therefore you you wouldn't be capable of taking care of baby. You have to develop socially, psychologically, and physically. Yeah, the female body probably couldn't handle childbirth either, right, So it makes sense to not come out of the womb being capable of sexual reproduction. It makes sense for that to

have to to develop at some point. Sure, agreed. So they also in stage one, um, you're gonna start getting a little fine pubic hairs and uh, that's that is called pew barkie? Is it really? Not kidding? You just add archie to anything very much. I got your hierarchy. There's all sorts of things that come about, uh, and you might start to get your first erections at this point, Um, you are not gonna have any idea what's going on

with your body. But it's gonna happen unless you take an advanced health class that like nine years old, um, or if you have like parents who are comfortable with talking like this. Yeah, but boys, sometimes you're getting bad information. Well there's to combat that kind of stuff there where. There have always been, um, educational films about this kind

of stuff. I found one from the fifties called Everybody Changes or something like that, and it's basically like a track and field coach answering questions from the track and field team like me, who all seem like plants frankly, and um, I guess still yeah, but it's pretty it's pretty good our podcast page, yeah for this episode. Al Right, so that's stage one. You enter stage two around twelve

or thirteen. Your testicles are still a growing, yes, so that's the thing, and um, they they grow faster and most prominently first. That's like the sign that you're in Puberta. Everything else might not be happening, but your testicles are probably growing pretty quick before your very eye making a sound if you're listening closely. I knew we would be just like two dumb little kids and crew cuts didn't

have any effect. Um, and this means you're gonna be producing testosterone as well, which is gonna make you crazy as well. Um, you're gonna start to grow quicker and height two to three inches a year. And one of the reasons why chuck is because that testosterone is being produced. So basically, the catatropin releasing hormone sources chain reaction and it leads down to your testicles, and it basically says, start producing testosterone, and then that floods the body and

has all sorts of crazy effects. But one of them is your bone cells have testosterone receptors and they grow in the presence of testosterone, So all of a sudden, they're being flooded with testosterone, which is why you grow so quickly while you under growth. Person, it's because of the testosterone having the impact on your bones. Um. And finally, in stage two, those fine pubic hares are going to start, as my gym teacher said, to become of course, and

curly and darker. Um, you're going to get more erections, more frequently, and your body is just gonna start to become a little leaner you're gonna start to look, um, a little more like an adult. Um, like a tiny adult. Yeah, which is funny. You know, by the end of the fifth stage, they said, at this point you look like a man. Your shoulders are broad. But you know, you look back on your high school pictures and you're like, I look like a little baby. Like I didn't start

looking like a man until I was in my thirties. Right, But compared to like your six year old self, exactly, you resemble the male physique more than before. Absolutely, third stage of puberty for boys is gonna be thirteen or fourteen. Um, You're pubic hair is gonna get even darker and more full. It's about the pubic hare. Well, it's a big change, you know. Well it's part of the Tanner scale. That's why it's so um, it's very recognizable, that's right, that's

why it's on the poster and olive garden. Uh. Your penis at this point is going to start to grow in linked uh. And of course all the while your testicles are still growing, You're getting more and more erections, and your height is gonna grow at about three inches per year at this point. And then your voice is gonna start cracking, which is super interesting. I know you dug up exactly what's going on there with your voice cracking? Yeah,

it's really interesting. Um So, remember testosterone makes stuff grow, basically, and one of the things that it makes grow is your vocal cords, right, which are basically two um cartilaginous bands that go over your trick ya your windpipe, so that when air passes through your lungs past the the your vocal cords, it makes them vibrate. And that vibration

is what your voices, that creates your voice. When you're a younger kid and your vocal cords are still small, they can vibrate, vibrate a really fast frequency, like say two vibrations per second because they're smaller, right, But as they grow in the presence of testosterone, they grow bigger and thicker. They can't vibrate quite as fast, so they might go down to like a hundred and thirty vibrations a second. Well, that's a lower frequency, which eventually leads

to a deeper voice. It's like a guitar string. The thicker guitar string is lower perfect analogy, that's exactly right, right. Another thing that happens which creeps me out to no end. But it it's part of it is your voice box, that part of the the the top of your trachea that holds your vocal cords grows in size and tilts forward. And my friend, you have an atoms apple after that. Yeah, not always. Um well, I mean you, some are more

prominent than other. Yeah, you know, it depends on like the shape and structure of your next But even if you can't see it, if you just kind of rub your finger up and down from your chin to your chest, it's in there. You're gonna feel your atoms apple. But it's so creepy to me. It's kind of like it produces the same emotional state as thinking about peeling a fingernail back. Yeah, that's what atoms apples due to make interesting.

Like just the thought of my atoms apple. I don't even like to touch it, but I can't stop, so so odd. Wow that is odd. Yeah, but anyway, that's your atoms apple, and that's why your voice changes. Um. It goes from growing from very small to growing large and it deepens. One of the other things too, Chuck, I thought this one was really cool. The testosterone in your skull, the facial bones. Yeah. So you know, testosterone causes your bones to grow. That includes your facial bones

as well. And as they grow, UM, your sinuses grow. So that means that there's more empty space for your voice to resonate in, which also makes it deeper. Yeah, And they don't know, UM evolutionarily exactly why. But the theory is, which makes perfect sense to me, is that UM one to attract women or to intimidate other men with that deep voice, which or just a signal I've arrived, don't you hear my voice? Yeah, which sounds totally different

than when you say, right voice, Yeah, you haven't arrived. Uh. So that's in stage three. UM, stage four, around fourteen or fifteen, you're gonna start getting that armpit hair. You're gonna start maybe getting a little facial hair. Although I didn't get facial hair until quite a bit later, and I don't even remember when I got it. I think, I mean, I wasn't shaving, and I just can't get rid of it. I know, look at me, I look like Fidel Castro, especially when you wear that hat, the

Castro hat. Yeah, it's weird. Um. Your pubic hair is gonna get more coarse, your voice is gonna drop even deeper and you're gonna start to get acne. Yeah, which is really sad. Well that's part of the result of um seem Yeah. We did a great podcast on acne. Yeah, we did, and uh, look this up even September two thousand eleven. The comito, which is Latin for worm, that's the stuff that you squeeze out of the center. Yeah, I mean, should we discover what acne is real quick?

That build up of seebum, that oil, which is necessary the water prouc your skin. Yeah, but you overproduce it during puberty. Yeah. Plus you're also sloughing off skin cells at a crazy rate. Yeah, that's a recipe for disaster. All of those things are trying to exit through pores and hair follicles and they can't always make it. So when it gets built up, it blocks. It goes through the three stooges syndrome and trying to get through the

door at the same time. Right, and then uh, certain types of bacteria acne bacteria come in and infect it and it swells and then you have a pimple. That's right, that's all there is to it. It's fine and Tom actually goes to the trouble of providing some advice on what to do with it. And it's great advice because you think you might want to scrub it to death and use every super drying um product you can find with a scouring pad. That's the exact opposite what you

want to do. Yeah, because that that can make it worse. You want to gently wash your face or your shoulders or your back or whatever or everything a couple of times a day, keep it clean, which is a problem because young boys aren't known for loving showers at this point. No, no, But if this is a thing to you and it's bothering you, then go to the trouble of doing something

about it. It's pretty simple and straightforward. Just wash your face gently with just lightly a couple of times a day and that's it, um, And don't overdo it because that just irritates it even more. It makes your face so mad. Yeah, that showering thing is so funny to me. In our buddy Mark Farley from the TV show played Clint Kinking Beard Can't Kinking Beard Um said that he had a Facebook post the other day about trying to

get his son to take a shower. It was just like marching him to the you know, to the firing squad or something. I remember that age was like, now I don't want to take a shower. I don't want to do anything. But now like the shower is the best part of the day, you know, Yeah, it's nice. I still hate taking showers the process of it. I'm like, I'd rather be doing anything else. Then afterward, I'm like, man, I love showers. Interesting, it's just like going to the

trouble of taking it. It's just bothers. Well, sometimes I'll do that. Uh, have that thing around it. Just don't want to be wet. Yeah, that's another one too. So I want in the wintertime, you don't want to be you know, you're gonna be cold. Good point. And at the end of stage four um euro Penis. At this point we'll start to grow thicker and continue to grow longer. But again, guys, this isn't happening at the rate that you would like. Uh, don't worry about it. Just hanging there,

just hanging in there. You'll you'll be okay, you'll be fine. And they been doing this for hundreds of thousands of years, that's right. Uh, And finally stage five M fourteen to eighteen. You're gonna grow most of your height at this point. Yeah, although you might grow in your twenties a little bit, but yeah, but not. This is where you're growing the fastest. Um you You are growing several inches a year basically, whereas up to this point you're growing to two to three.

Now you're growing up to maybe five inches in a year. That's crazy. Yeah, that's quick growth. Yeah. And that's like when I see my nephew now he's like six one, he is so tall, it's so weird. Um, he's not weird. Oh no, no, no, it's weird to see your nephew like taller than you all of a sudden. Just want to make sure we clarify that he knows he's not weird. Um. Your shoulders are gonna be broader at this point, your

muscles are going to be more fully developed. Uh, you're gonna have new muscle fibers, You're gonna everything is basically just getting thicker on your body. Yeah, they call it filling out. I think again, that's because its testosterone and all of these other um hormones that you are producing.

You were producing them mainly at night while you slept before, which is significant that it's released from the hypothalamus because the hypothalamus also regulates sleep, right, um, so while you're sleeping, the hypothalamus is like, I guess, keep myself busy by

having some of these new hormones produced. As you go further along in the stages of puberty, you um actually are producing them all the time and in vast quantities, so that that would account for your muscles growing bigger and your skeleton growing faster than ever, and all this

hair coming out everywhere and growing course and everything. You know. Well, and that's since you mentioned it, I wasn't gonna bring it up, but um, your pubic hair in stage five is going to start to creep all over your body. It's gonna be in your inner thighs and creeping up your stomach. You might get chest hair, and you're just wondering what in the world is happening to me? Um. So those are the stages and right for this, we will come back with more on puberty, but not on

public care. No, We've got more on pubic care, more on both. So Chuck, I've got a little more on pubic hair. Um. So there's it's kind of an evolutionary mystery to why we have it um because if you think about it, it doesn't really do a whole lot for guys. Doesn't protect anything, It doesn't keep vital stuff warm. Not really Okay, I thought it would warm stuff up. No, it's like no, not really, not enough to explain, like why it's concentrated where it's concentrated, mostly you know what

I mean. So they think probably what's going on is Number one, it's an outward overt signal that the person has gone through puberty and is capable of sexual reproduction. Therefore he is a viable mate. That's one thing that especially was a big signal when we weren't wearing clothes back in the day, right um. And then secondly they

think also that is a transmitter of pheromones. Basically that when you when you enter puberty and you start to grow armpit hair and pubic hair and just hair everywhere, you also start to to um open up a new type of sweat gland, epicrine sweat glands, whereas before you just smelled like a little angel because you didn't stink,

because you weren't producing weird types of sweat. Once you go through, um going at archy, all of a sudden you start to stink and start get the little body over here and there, right, And even though you don't want to take a shower, everyone else wants you to take a shower. So just go take a shower because you stink, stinking a little teenager, right. And one of the things that's making you stink is this new sweat

with these new hormones that are come going out. But also supposedly you're still you're producing pheromones as well, and these, um, although we don't it's never been proven that humans are capable of sensing pheromones on other people, they think that there's a pretty high likelihood we do. And they think that pubic hair and armpit hair serves just basically big neon signs for these. Um, these odor molecules that were not necessarily capable of sensing got you. So thank you

for that, for giving us body odor. Right, all right, So your body is growing like crazy, growing like a weed. As they say, um, you are probably going to start growing taller than girls in your class, who were probably taller than you before that, because girls typically will grow um height earlier than boys will, right, I remember lots of girls that were taller than me through most of my elementary school. Um, but don't worry, guys, You'll catch up,

and don't worry girls. Yeah, because it's awkward for girls sometimes to be taller than a boy because all these weird societal norms, you know, societal norms that are not only weird but wrong. Of course. Um, when you're an adults, you realize it really doesn't matter when you are going through puberty. It is the exact opposite of realizing that it doesn't matter. Yeah, it seems like it matters a whole whole lot. Yeah, that is not the case in reality, however,

it's just what you're going through that's right hanging there. Um, you're also going to be gaining weight between fifteen and sixty five pounds through puberty. Um, You're extremities are gonna grow like crazy. That's why teenage boys have these big, clunky feet and these unwieldy hands, and they don't know how to operate any of them. Right, That's why there's like this associated clumsiness with puberty. It's a real thing, totally.

It's not just this um character sketch that people use for humor, like pe pubescent boys and girls are clumsier than any other point in their life because their hands and feet are bigger than the rest of their body. That and then also if you ask a psychologist why they're clumsy, um, they will say that in addition to learning how to use these new bigger hands and feet and deal with them, you're also acutely aware. You're going through the most self conscious phase of your entire life.

So you're suddenly having thoughts like do I look weird walking? And when you stop and think about walking while you're walking, right, that makes walking really hard. So that to the clumsiness as well. Yeah. Again with with my nephew, No, I remember before he was even super tall. I remember seeing these feet one time when I visited, and I was

just like, what in the world it's going on down there, buddy? Yeah, you just had these huge, huge feet and then the body catches up and then you lose that clumsiness and you're like, Okay, everything's all proportioned now. Um, your chin is gonna get a little longer, your face is changing shape, your nose thickens up. Uh. And these are just like the physical changes. There's things going on inside your body

as well. Apparently your blood pressure increases. Yeah makes sense. Yeah, Um, your metabolism decreases some, so you're gonna start to put on a little more weight. We already talked about. Um, the you're gonna start getting a little more stinky. And this is all like the normal course of things. If you start going through puberty too young, that can be a problem. Um, Like, if if you're super young and going through puberty, you might want to see a doctor

because this could mean things problems later in life. It's called precocious pubescence. No, but it can be caused by everything from a tumor too well. Yeah, they they it's not necessarily a medical problem, but they it does suggest This article suggests that if you do, and the Mayo Clinic did too, that if you have a really young kid that's starting to show signs of puberty, you might want to just point it out to a doctor and see what they say. Right. I wonder what ages if

I guess of nine is early than anything before nine. Okay. Another thing that's going to happen with your erections is you might have uh, wet dreams, nocternal emission, nocturnal emissions, that's right. And what dreams apparently is like a very common term. They used it in that nineteen fifties educational film. Oh yeah, I remember them saying that in my health class. It sounds like a sequel the porkis or something that, you know, porkies to wet dreams. Like, yeah, no, internal

emissions is I mean, it just makes sense. That's right, And that's when stuff right there. Yeah, that one's you. That means you're you're sleep, you have a dream. Uh that's sexual in nature. And uh, if it's a full wet dream, that means you ejaculate in your sleep. And uh, the first time that happens in your little boy, you have no idea what's going on. Um, you just wake up and you're like, what in the world just happened? Right, But nothing to be ashamed do. Hopefully your parents are

talking to you about this stuff. All very normal part of the process. Yes, just quietly take the seats off your bed and tell your parents that you've decided to start doing your own logary from now on. Exactly. Well. I was a late bed wedder though, so I didn't know what the heck was going on. I was just leaking fluids at night. I had no idea what to do. That's fantastic. Um. And the erections you're gonna get erections when the wind blows. Um, you might get erections in

the boys locker room. And they said that is not a uh indicator of sexual preference. Um. It is also a very normal thing that happens. Pretty much. Anything can do that to you, So don't don't worry about that

kind of thing. Again. You really should not base your worldview and your ideas about what life is going to be like on the period of puberty, because it is the weirdest time of your higher life and not just yours, either of all of your friends, of your teachers, eventually your little brothers, sisters, your parents, everybody, everybody, the weirdest time in their life is puberty. It's just a really odd experience. All right, you want to take another break?

Why not? Man? All right, we'll talk about these puberty hormones when we come back. So, Chuck, we talked about that little time bomb of a hypothalamus holding the go at a trope and releasing hormone, and it's just waiting for the GPR fifty four to come along and trigger its release and the g n r H gon ada trope and releasing hormone makes its way to the pituitary gland, which is a little peace size plan that I think it was Descartes thought where the soul resided. Yeah, I

think so. He turned out to be wrong. But that does actually trigger the production of two other important hormones, right, um, lutinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone. And these two things are that they're kind of like the chemical messengers that go down to the gonads the testicles and say, start growing and start producing testosterone and sperm. That's right. This is the process by which you become able to reproduce. This is the process by which you grow a mustache.

That's right. Uh f s h um. When it reaches those testicles and it's follicle stimulating hormone that is going to cause the growth of what are called uh seminiferous tubules, and those are the tubes basically where the sperm is produced and all the stuff is in your body. Again, it's just like it's waiting on the go sign exactly. You know. It's like this boy needs to become a man, all right, we're just waiting for the signal and it's gonna take sixty eight years and then another thirty to

forty years after that. Right, So with the lutinizing hormone, that UM goes to the tests and it says, hey, there's these things called lading cells and they produce androgens, which are hormones that basically help your development as well, including testosterone, and they say start producing this. So these two things go down and you start producing sperm and testosterone as a result, and the sperm seeks its way out in any way shape or former can, whether you

like it or not. And then the testosterone just spreads throughout the body and again it does everything from making your the bones in your face grow to making your voice crack like Peter Brady, to making you grow afoot in a couple of years, UM, to growing mustache. That's right, not ironically either, because when you did it, when you were thirteen, you were super cool. You know who was like the best example of a pubescent boy on television? I think do you ever watch King of the Hill? Oh? Sure,

remember Joseph. I don't remember Joseph the Dale's son, but really was John Redcorne son. Yeah, neighbor Bobby's friend Joseph. He was awesome. He started to go through puberty, he had like that little mustache. He didn't he get mad for reasons he couldn't explain, just perfect. He was great. I was a big fan of Bobby too, of course.

Oh yeah, Oh here's another cool thing. Um. We talk a lot about the physiological things that happened, the body actually physically growing, but there's also the mind and psychological changes that happened. And your brain is developing in such a way that it's really really neat. You're gonna start having interest in things that you never thought you had interest in before. Um. Yeah, not just like riding the

bike down to the creek and teasing the girls. You start thinking about life and why some people are poor and other people are rich. Yeah, all sorts of like kind of deep stuff all of a sudden now attracts your attention. Yeah, and you you are going to start kind of thinking about life beyond the three ft in front of your face, right or summer vacation. Yeah, exactly, although summer vacation still rules for a while. I don't

need to discount that. No, no no, no, but you're gonna start thinking about like maybe what do I want to do with my life? And what kind of career do I want? Where do I want to go to college? Like these things naturally to start popping up in your head, and with that comes a lot of anxiety because I've never thought about what my places in the world. Right, well, what if I don't end up being rich? What will become of me? Then? Yes, you're gonna be confused, You're

gonna be anxious. Um, you're also I'm gonna find that you're attracted to other people. That Yeah, that's when those first seeds are planted, and that causes anxiety in and of itself. Do they like me? Am I good looking? What is good looking? What do I look? Dumb? Walking? Right now? Right? What is walking? Is my stash coming

in thick enough? What is a statue? Yeah? And you just but it's true, like when when your brain is bathed in androgens for the first time, they find that not only does it restructure and reorganize the way you think, which is why all of a sudden you're starting to think about deeper stuff and into the future and everything, but also the way it worked already changes. So this reward pathway that used to get you to go eat more blow pops because they're so great. Um, all of

a sudden is now concentrating on finding a date. So you're you're what you place value on changes and let's be because your brain is literally saying like, go do this because this is gonna feel great. Yeah. I definitely even remember when self awareness sort of kicked in. You know, when you didn't just walk by a mirror all of a sudden you looked at it and you're like, well, this is what I look like? Is that is am I handsome? Do I look funny? Uh? I just kind

of short? Is that a bad thing? Um? Yeah, it's self awareness is the best way to describe it. And as a result of this, depression can sid in. Sure, there's such thing as pubescent depression, which yeah, and it is in many ways. It's a very natural result of starting to question things and realizing you don't have all

the answers and it's just things getting more complex. Yeah, that's why it's it's very important for parents to have a to try to have a good line of communication as possible, but it's going to be even more difficult because there may be possibility that you're pubescent boy didn't want anything to do with you at this point. Yeah, there may be a chance that that's the case. Well

not always though, Um, I was or my nephew. Again, I hate to keep picking on him, but he's super close to my brother and my sister in law, and you know, they have a great relationship. But I'm still I'm sure there's still some bit of that teenage stuff. And that's that's a good thing to have to for the most part. That when the when the boy strikes out on his own or doesn't want to have anything to do with you, or all of a sudden, your

car is stupid, so drop me off two blocks from school. Yeah, that that shows signs of like them forming an independent spirit or whatever. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. You should encourage that, um and discourage them being little jerks. Thought, fine line, right, So, UM, as a parent of a pubescent boy, Um, you you have to give leeway, but you also have to like curtail behavior that's problematic. Yeah, absolutely, Uh, And we mentioned depression earlier. Of course, UM, keep an

eye on that kind of stuff. And there's nothing wrong with having your young boy or girl go get like talk to a counselor or something. Doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. It just means you may need a little outside help. No, shame, no, and chuck. We should say um because somebody will right in to let us

know if we don't. What we've just described the social and psychological development of a person that's technically adolescence, and adolescence is this whole broad change from childhood to adulthood and actually includes puberty as a component. So puberty is part of adolescence. Yeah, we've been using them kind of interchangeably for the last little bit, but yeah, I think it works. Yeah, I agree, And it can be very trying to raise an adolescent. Um so hanging their parents.

You went through it too, and before you know it, you'll all be buddies again. You you have it coming to you basically for what you did to your period. Pretty much, all right. I think we should finish with some pretty interesting, um male puberty rights from different cultures. Yeah, here in America, when you enter puberty and your boy your dad just gives you this kind of awkward punch in the arm and walks away, and I hope you don't bring it up ever. Again, that's the right of

passage for puberty in America. Yeah, that's kind of what happened to me. Um. If you're Islamic, your parents are going to teach their sons um adulthood and basically say that from the time you have your first ejaculation is when you are responsible for your own actions. Yeah. I guess you have a little more leeway before that. Yeah, makes sense. Um. If you are Jewish, you might have a bar mitzvah on your thirteenth birthday. Well, whether you like it or not, you officially are a bar mitzvah,

a son of the Commandment. That's right, um. But there new traditions have developed where like you do starting at the synagogue and then your party afterward. But you're just automatically on your thirdteenth birthday, that's right. Have you? Um? Do you watch Sharing out Live? Have you ever seen Jacob the bar mitz a boy? No, it's really cute. It's uh is it new? No, she's been around for a while. It's a woman who Vanessa Bear does it though.

She has a little curly wig and a and a yamaka and sits down low in the chair and the whole concept of The skid is that she UM is this awkward bar mits of a boy who can only read like a prepared speech, and so they'll ask her questions and she'll just kind of bat her eyes and then start reading from her prepared speech again, and she's like a New Yorker and it's it's really very cute and funny. So Chuck, you know, we did a pretty

good episode on circumcision. Yeah, a male circumcision. We didn't do female circumcision yet, UM, but in in that episode we talked mostly about Western circumcision, but and a lot of cultures, including Malaysia and some parts of South Africa. UM circumcision is part of the ritual of entering puberty, so you'll be circumcised when you're like eleven twelve, UM, and it might be part of a larger ceremony as well. Like UM. Aborigines in Australia UM perform circumcision at puberty,

but it's also paired with UM what's called a walk about. Yeah, when they're sent out to walk right, basically they're like, you go away from us and go learn to hunt and survive on your own, but first we have UM to do something to you. Yeah, well they also have and I was trying to find out how if this is still done with great regularity. But they also the

Aborigines practice male birth control rituals. So after circumcision, they will pierce a hole through the base of the penis put a splinter in there to keep that hole open. So basically you urinate and ejaculate not through the end of your penis, but through this hole, which makes it really hard to reproduce. And uh, I imagine it does make it hard to reproduce. Yeah, And I don't know if this is like what the modern Aborigines do or if it's just an ancient custom. It's like there are

one child policy. Oh maybe so, I guess then when you pull the splinter out, it heals up enough to restore reproduct Well, now the splinter is pulled out and there's a permanent hole there, so then how how do you reproduce? Well, you plug it up with your finger, I think compared to that, I'm sure if you're a Pueblo boy, you're like, oh, I just have to take an ice bath, let's do it exactly, which is one

of their rituals. Um there's a tribe called the Toro tribe of Papa Papua New Guinea, and they have um forced homosexuality as part of the rights of passive for a boy. What you essentially do is a boy is paired with an elder man and they ingest semen and that is part of the ritual to become a man from a boy with this tribe, so they just drink. There's no sexual act. There's drinking of sperm. Oh no, there's it's it's with the sexual act and then later

on you were paired as a man with another boy. Uh. And that is I mean, it's a tribe of like thirteen hundred people in Papua New Guinea and they become a mentor. They believe that in the semen is your most concentrated life force. So that has passed along to

a boy. I had not heard that one either. Um. There's a tribe in East Africa where they shaved the boy's head and then cut them to the bone on their forehead, three deep horizontal cuts and they have a scar called a gar and it's a symbol of manhood lying on aunt beds. The Luceno Indian tribe um when you become a manure too complete the ceremonial act of laying on an ant bed and being you know, bitten and stung by ants without reacting. You just have to

keep like a stone face. Wow, that's one of their rituals. Um. And they also are given a hallucinogenic drug to exacerbate it or make it better. You think, No, this is afterward, I think called tolo kahi, and that's supposed to help them see visions. Um. I guess it's kind of similar to the vision quest of the Native American, which is the thing too. Yeah. So those are some of the more interesting ones thanks to correct magazine and um, do

you remember I gave up cultural relativism in some respects. Yeah, but I also it's not really I don't feel like it's my roller position to persuade other people to feel one way or the other about something. It's at the individual. I hear you. I got one more. The the m A t I s the matisse or madis hunting trials. Uh. This tribe, it's a Brazilian ribe. Um. When they send their boys out to become in and hunt for the first time, they put a bitter poison in their eyes

that's supposed to improve their vision and enhance their senses. Uh. And if that wasn't enough, there's a series of beatings and whippings that take place to make you a man. And then at the end of that they burn an area of your skin and put this ground up frog goop um and with a wooden needle. And it's a poison that's supposed to increase your strength and endurance. So I guess that Western American like light punched the arm, we got a pretty good symbolism of all this other stuff.

I'll take that. But it's true boys are treated roughly and definitely more rougher than girls are around the world. Absolutely, although I saw some of the girls puberty rituals and some of those aren't pretty either. Yeah, well we need to cover that absolutely. We need to do female circum decision and um, female puberty. I guess agreed. Well, those

will be coming right up, I'm sure. Uh. If you want to know more about male puberty, you can type those words in the search bart how stuff works dot com. And since I said search bar, it's time for a listener and mail. I'm gonna call this coincidence. We get a lot of these where people experience coincidence is related to what they're listening to. Um. And this is from Andrew and Ohio. He said on December thirte That was on the way home from work, and as I do

every morning, I'm sorry. On the way to work, I load you guys up on my phone and I'm taking to some learning adventure. Today's adventure was how broken bones work. So I'm listening and thinking, Uh, you guys start talking about you've never broken a bone before, and I start thinking, neither of I and you guys both say knock on wood exactly, and I think I don't need a knock

what it won't happen to me. I get to work, still listening, walking towards the back of my walking towards the back of the box in my hand, I trip on the carpet fall and punched the ground with my right hand. He broke his pinky bone clean into um, sort of where the palm of the hand is like the bone just below the pinky. And he sent me a picture and it was just snapped like a twig and the break was so bad I had to have surgery to put two screws in a plate in to

hold the bone together. As a healed um. As of now, I'm pretty much held up a whist, some feeling in the pinky, some range of motion, but I can say I've got a titanium plate in my hand, so I feel like it's a trade off forget iron man, I am titanium plate handman. But she says it's a working name. So uh, he said, Thanks a lot. Guys. If you happen to read this, um, please shout out to my fiance Ali Spence. We're getting married in June and I

couldn't be more excited. So that is Andrew Hall of Wooster, Ohio. So congratulations Ali, and Andrew, congratulation. Watch where you're going, buddy. Yeah, and don't tempt fate man. Nope, I don't need to knock. Would look what happened. If you want to let us know how superstition bit you, we want to hear about it. You can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff

you Should Know. You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how Stuff Works dot com, and as always, joined us at at home on the web Stuff you Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Visit how stuff works dot com.