Hello and welcome to The Upgrade, the podcast from the team at LifeHacker, where we help you improve your life one week at a time.

I'm Melissa Kirsch, editor-in-chief of LifeHacker.

And I'm Alice Bradley, Lifehacker's deputy

editor- And today we're talking about rudeness. Whether we're rage tweeting at strangers,

talking over our coworkers, or flipping fellow drivers the bird, we're becoming complete and

total barbarians. Why are we treating people like garbage? Why do we clip our toenails on

public transportation? Why do we all our toenails on public transportation?

Why do we all feel so entitled to be a-holes? And what can we do about it?

Melissa? Yes? Shut up. Our guest today is Danny Wallace, comedian, radio host, and author of the book, FU Very Much,

understanding the culture of rudeness and what we can do about it. He was a BBC comedy producer, and he's also

the author of Yes Man, which was turned into a movie starring Jim Carrey. So, Danny, thank you

so much for being here. Thank you for letting me be here. Very good. Very good response. Very polite. So tell us about the incident that prompted

you to write this book. Well, yes, the dark and disturbing moment that happened to me. It was

all about a hot dog. I just wanted a hot dog. And there was a place that sold hot dogs and my son also wanted a hot dog. So, you know, this seemed to be working out pretty well. And I've bought them before. You go to a place that sells them and you say I'd like one, please. And that's pretty much as hard as it is. And yet, when I walked into this hot dog place, I was kind of met with,

well, like a barrage of rudeness. She seemed almost angry that I had deigned to turn up

demanding hot dogs. And I wasn't even demanding them. I was just asking very politely.

And bearing in mind, this was the only reason that this lady had got up that morning was to make hot dogs for people who want hot dogs.

So I was sort of surprised by this anger at the appearance of a customer.

But I tried to just do what I normally do and just sort of be polite about it.

And there was nowhere to sit.

She made us pay up front.

So now me and my son are standing outside waiting

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