You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.

Hey, it's Mariel.

I had this friend who was visiting me.

Must have been 10 years ago now.

But I still remember something she said.

We were sitting at my kitchen table.

I got up to go to the bathroom.

And when I came back, she goes,

did you poop? I was like, girl, what did you just say to me? For a moment, I was embarrassed.

I actually hadn't pooped, but just the idea that she knew that I do that sometimes was distressing.

It also made me laugh and feel a lot more comfortable with her. Like if we could talk about pooping, we could talk about anything. Yeah, I think that's a really keep that friend.

Don't lose that one. She's a keeper. This is Dr. Trisha Pesricha. She's a gastroenterologist at Beth Israel

Deaconess Medical Center. She also teaches at Harvard Medical School and has a column in the Washington Post

called Ask a Doctor. Tricia says, many of us are pooping wrong. In fact, that's the title of her

new book. You've been pooping all wrong. How to Make Your Bowel movements a joy.

There's a statistic that has been floating around for a few years now, which is that 40% of Americans,

their daily lives are disrupted by their bowel movements.

But you probably wouldn't know that because pooping is not considered polite conversation.

After we potty train, for the most part, everyone just shuts the door, locks it,

and nobody really knows what anyone else is

doing there behind closed doors. And nobody's checking in from time. Because I'm not really your

doctor, not your parents, certainly not your friends. Nobody's asking like, hey, do you like squat

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