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Guaranteed Human. Guess what, Mango? What's that, Will? So I was traveling last week, and as I go through security, I'm waiting on my bag to be scanned, and I catch this strong whiff of Purell. And it reminded me to pull mine out because there's something about all this stuff going in and out of bins that really grosses me out. But then I realized mine wasn't on me. So I looked at the end of the moving belt, and I saw there was a dispenser. I walk over and I put some of that magic on my hands. Ten feet after that, there was another dispenser. Suddenly I started noticing these things everywhere. I could have gone swimming in all the hand sanitizer available to me. It's something so present in our

lives. My son just calls it hand sand. Hand sand. I hope that takes off. Me too. And it made me wonder,

how did hand sanitizer become such a thing? And it turns out it goes all the way back to this woman

named Goldie Lipman, who worked at a rubber plant in the 40s. At the time, workers would use

benzene to get carbon off their hands, which is super harsh. So Goldie and her husband Jerry invented a more gentle, waterless cleaner. It's this classic startup story. They lived in their parents' attic. They mixed up test batches in the laundry machine. And then they packaged it in pickle jars. I think I've seen that in Brooklyn. That's right. So artisanal. I know, but then they tried to sell the stuff and it didn't go so well. How come? Well, no one wanted to try this goopy stuff, you know? So Jerry came up with a sales trick. Just before a meeting, he squirt a little dab on his palm. Then when someone would shake his hand, they'd get startled because who wants to feel this cold, wet, glob in a handshake? That's so gross. It's pretty gross, I know. But as they rubbed it to get it off, the factory stains would vanish from inside their palms. Which I guess is pretty smart. It's genius, I think. And so this is the proto-purel. And today, hand sanitizers are everywhere.

But looking at all the handsan around us, it got me wondering, are we being overprotective?

How clean should we be?

And that's the question we're tackling're listening to Part-Time Genius.

Now, today, I can barely recognize Mangesh because he's currently wrapped in plastic wrap from the office kitchen, and he reeks of hand sanitizer. Did I use too much? I mean, maybe a little. Well, I know Purell is more your thing, but ever since doing all this research on germs this week, I'm thinking of making it my signature scent, like how Prince always smell like lavender. I can't say that I was aware of this. Yeah, he used to smell like heavy, heavy lavender. And his friends used to say that they could smell his presence, like a full minute before he entered the room. So you'd be sitting there and you'd feel this hit of lavender and then oh, like you just appear like an angel.

Anyway, after this week, I'm thinking of doing that with Purell.

I think that's a brilliant plan, Mango.

You know what's interesting, and I realize we're going deep on hand sanitizer before this

episode even starts, but one of the things customers always indicate is a preference

for unscented sanitizers.

But when hand sanitizer companies

came out with more a few years ago, not only did customers not buy the fragrance-free versions,

but there was concern in the health community that people weren't applying enough of it to really

kill the germs. Well, I'm pretty sure I used enough of it. I would agree with that. But speaking

of our research this week, we were reminded yet again that science is weird, because it feels like we're always reading these contradictory reports. It's healthy to drink wine one week, then it's not healthy to drink wine. It's healthy to drink coffee. It's not healthy to drink coffee. You know, it turns out it's not healthy to smoke a bucket full of cigarettes.

That is how they sell cigarettes now today still. Yeah, you want to get them by the tub. That's the

super cool thing to do. And it feels like studies on germs are the same way. I mean, we know it's good

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