Why you fight about the dishwasher
Think from KERA
KERA
4.7 • 911 Ratings
🗓️ 27 November 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every relationship has a person who loads the dishwasher like an architect, and one who throws plates in like a tornado. Ellen Cushing, staff writer for The Atlantic, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why arguments over daily chores might signal deeper issues in a partnership, why some household appliances have such a hold on us, and, yes, we’ll get to scientific proof of how that dishwasher is really supposed to be loaded. (Be prepared to tell your significant other.) Her article is, “There Are Two Types of Dishwasher People.”
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| 0:00.0 | Have you heard about OMG Yes? |
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| 0:38.1 | See for yourself at omg yes.com. That's omg yes.com. |
| 0:48.1 | There's this online meme that says, in every relationship, there is one person who loads |
| 0:57.9 | the dishwasher like a Scandinavian architect, and one who loads it like a raccoon on meth. |
| 1:04.2 | So today I would like to go on record and give a shout out to my fellow raccoons. |
| 1:09.2 | From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. Given other fundamental |
| 1:15.3 | disagreements we might have with our partners about how to handle money or how to raise kids, |
| 1:20.3 | maybe the dishwasher thing seems inconsequential. But given that therapists report recurring |
| 1:25.9 | dishwasher fights come up kind of a lot in relationship counseling, |
| 1:29.9 | it is worth understanding why they happen and asking whether there really is a right way to use this weirdly controversial appliance. |
| 1:38.7 | Ellen Cushing is a staff writer at The Atlantic, which published her article, |
| 1:42.5 | The Absolutely Positively Correct Way to Load Your dishwasher. Ellen, welcome to think. at the Atlantic, which published her article, the absolutely positively correct way to load |
| 1:45.8 | your dishwasher. Ellen, welcome to think. Hello, thank you for having me. I'm also a raccoon. |
| 1:53.2 | We need to have a support group. Even the title of this article strikes me as something that |
| 1:59.1 | will get people's tackles up. |
| 2:02.1 | Yes, definitely. I was hoping you would be a little bit sarcastic, which it is. The truth is |
| 2:08.6 | there's not really a one right way to load the dishwasher because all dishwashers are different |
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