Soap is a miraculous substance – and mysterious too: we have no idea how humans first figured out to make it. We lived with soap for millennia before we thought to use it to wash ourselves with it, but once we did a love affair with cleanliness was born.
# Stuff You Should Know - Soap Episode
Josh and Chuck dive deep into the surprisingly magical world of soap, exploring how this humble cleaning agent actually works at the molecular level to fight dirt, bacteria, and even viruses like COVID-19. They trace soap's unexpected 5,000-year history from ancient Mesopotamia through the Roman Empire and medieval Europe, revealing that people used soap for everything except personal hygiene for thousands of years before someone finally decided to wash themselves with it. The episode covers the surprising science behind why soap is far more effective than hand sanitizer, debunks the antibacterial soap myth, and offers surprisingly entertaining stories about how major soap brands like Ivory and Castile became household staples.
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