Dishwashing Debates: The Soapy Science Behind Everyone's Favorite Chore

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2024

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Next week, the US celebrates the dishwashing Olympics—also known as Thanksgiving. But how best to tackle the washing-up after the big meal can cause as much conflict as your uncle’s hot takes at the table. Do dishes get cleaner when they’re hand-washed or run through the dishwasher? Which is better for the environment? Are those convenient little detergent pods poisoning our oceans with microplastics? And who do we have to thank for that most glorious of inventions, the dishwashing machine? This episode, we’ve got answer to all these crucial questions and more, as we dive into the sudsy story of dishwashing through the ages and across cultures. Listen in now to make the most mundane household chore 100 percent more fascinating, guaranteed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's funny when I was thinking about talking about this today is so much of this stuff is like at the heart of a lot of arguments within relationships.
0:09.8	I feel like I think there are marriages that are strengthened or hurt by what happens around washing dishes.
0:16.6	To be honest, there are few things that are more contentious than the correct method of washing the dishes, unless perhaps it's the correct way to load a dishwasher, which is deeply divisive.
0:29.3	We at Gastropod are here to solve these debates once and for all, and to tell you and whoever you are sparring with which of you is right.
0:36.1	It's you. Or really, me. I'm
0:38.9	Nicola Twilly. And I'm Cynthia Graber, and this is Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food
0:43.3	through the lens of science and history. This week, we're not looking at food, but rather
0:47.4	what happens to its aftermath, the cleanup. Assuming you don't have servants, which sadly
0:52.7	neither of us do, post-meal cleanup is a task that has to happen on an extremely regular basis.
1:00.4	And even though we never think about it, all the tools we use for that cleanup had to be invented.
1:06.8	So we wanted to know about this history.
1:09.4	How did people wash dishes before dishwashers and detergent? And we wanted to know about this history. How did people wash dishes before dishwashers and
1:12.7	detergent? And we wanted to know if you have a dishwasher at home, is it better to use that,
1:17.0	or should you be doing the dishes by hand? And what's with all the dishwashing pods you can
1:21.0	find in the stores these days? Are they really better or just more expensive? Or could they actually
1:25.6	be a worse choice? These are the questions of our time.
1:29.1	And this is the episode with the best answers science and history can offer.
1:33.5	It's supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the public understanding of science, technology, and economics.
1:40.0	Gastropod is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network in partnership with eachor.
1:47.8	Do you feel like your leads never lead anywhere? And you're making content that no one sees.
1:52.9	And it takes forever to build a campaign? Well, that's why we built HubSpot. It's an AI-powered
1:59.5	customer platform that builds campaigns for you,
	...

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