SPEAKER_02: You don't need special gadgets to be a hero.With unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase everywhere, the Capital One Quicksilver card makes you the hero of every purchase.Whether it's headphones, a lounge chair, or even a well-deserved massage, whatever the Quicksilver purchase, you're the hero. No fighting bad guys, getting in epic car chases, or parachuting out of buildings required.Simple, isn't it?The Capital One Quicksilver Card.What's in your wallet?Terms apply.See CapitalOne.com for details.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff.I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's here too, sitting in for Dave.It's the Uge, and this is Short Stuff.I think I already said that, so let's go.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, woo-woo edition?
SPEAKER_01: A little bit, depending on what your background is or what your intentions are or what you believe the effects of what you're doing are.
SPEAKER_02: That's right.And what we're talking about is smudging.And if you're like, what is that?Have you ever heard of burning sage?Like, oh, we just moved into this new house.We're going to walk around and burn some sage, get rid of all those bad vibes and just welcome the newness and the goodness into this place by burning a little bundle of white sage.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's called smudging.The smoke supposedly does some stuff to, like you said, the vibes.It is very popular among people who use words like vibes.But it has its roots very firmly in indigenous North American cultures, in particular the Dakota and Ho-Chunk cultures smudged with sage.Ho-Chunk is more familiar as the Winnebago tribe. And they also, I guess they evolved this practice independently, but civilizations throughout time have used herbs or incenses to do things like cleanse the air or purify things.And there's definitely something to it.It's just the science on it hasn't really been... carried out in a lot of ways.And there's a lot of people who still kind of jump to larger conclusions than they possibly should at this point.
Who knows?I think my take on it, I just want everybody to bear this in mind.If it makes you happy, if you like it, if you're doing it ethically and responsibly, more power to you.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.Burning all kinds of herbs has long been a sort of a ritual in different cultures like you were talking about.Smudging, you can also call it saging.The word sage actually comes from Latin, from salvia, which means to feel healthy.And we're going to talk about potential health benefits here in a minute. But there are people who will say, well, hold on a minute.This is cultural appropriation, really.And if you're just walking around like you throw on some Enya or some Grateful Dead and you're smudging, you're burning that sage and walking around, then you may be sort of doing a – Not a disservice, but inadvertently sort of... Insulting?Being disrespectful to the original, very sacred practice.
So that is something to keep in mind.Enya's like, leave me out of this.Right. Leave me in the crossword where I belong.So there are people, though, that will say like, hey, if you're going to do this, keep some things in mind, harvest it sustainably.And we'll get to why you should do that in a sec.Although you should always do that for anything.And then maybe, you know, sort of do some research on how it was really done and maybe, you know, try and honor that in some way.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.Yeah.Maybe seek different sources to be on Instagram or TikTok.And I'm not making fun, but I know that there's a lot of people that are getting the idea to go smudge from those sources.Great.But go look up a little more about it.And that might help you feel a little better about doing it.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and if you're curious about potential benefits of smudging beyond just sort of feeling like it's a ritual you should do when you move in or you want to get rid of some bad vibes, don't go to websites that have web pages that are turquoise.
SPEAKER_01: Or in Comic Sans.
SPEAKER_02: Comic Sans, pink script, lots of crystals.You're going to get a lot of information on those sites, but it may not be accurate because I did look a little deeper into benefits of smudging and burning sage.And maybe we should talk about those when we come back right after this.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a capital idea.
SPEAKER_02: All right.We'll be right back. I'll see you next time. You could Airbnb your home or extra room and make some extra money while people are in town.Whether you could use extra money to cover some bills or for something a little more fun, your home might be worth more than you think.Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host.
SPEAKER_01: This year, Dell Technologies wants to help you do amazing things with their best tech.For a limited time only, save on select next-gen PCs like the XPS 13+, where you can make the everyday easier with Windows 11.
SPEAKER_02: That's right.You can unleash more possibilities with cutting-edge systems, most advanced features, and great prices.Plus, curate your dream setup with deals on select monitors, mice, and more must-have electronics and accessories.
SPEAKER_01: And when you shop online at dell.com slash deals, you'll have access to state of the art technology to match your forward thinking spirit and free shipping on everything.Amazing prices await you for a limited time only at dell.com slash deals.That's dell.com slash deals.
SPEAKER_02: All right.So if you look up, you know, what are the benefits of burning sage, you will find all kinds of things from improved mood, better sleep, enhanced cognition, lowering your stress levels, antibacterial properties, stuff like that. The problem is with a lot of this kind of stuff is it's hard to find great, solid scientific studies and evidence because science doesn't usually study stuff like this a lot.The money goes elsewhere.So you'll find lots of studies where it's like there's a lot of correlation and stuff like that, a lot of self-reporting.But I was having a hard time finding like some real good, hard, double-blind studies on this stuff.Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that's problem one.Problem two is there are some peer-reviewed good studies or meta-analysis of other studies.But if you start looking into them, you're like, oh, this isn't actually talking about smudging at all.Or if it is about smudging, it's not about smudging with sage.It's about smudging with Havan Samagri, which is an Indian medicinal, I guess, incense.Right. which that one is widely cited because that study found that burning Havan Samagari purifies your room.It kills up to 95% of airborne bacteria. For up to like 30 days.
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: So you could be like, okay, I mean, is sage really that much different from Havan smoggery?So surely there's some properties to it.That's what people are doing.Or if it's a study on sage and sage's ability to enhance cognition or to fight Alzheimer's or to improve your mood or something like that, those are studies on sage extract that you're taking orally.It's not a study on smudging.That's different. Again, you can make some jumps to conclusions that may have some basis, like if you burn some of the bioactive compounds in other plants, Marijuana, it does things to you for sure.How is it that far off that burning sage and its bioactive compounds could have other different effects that just maybe aren't quite as noticeable or just haven't been researched?Yes, the answer is yes.
But the key thing here is to remember it hasn't been researched.So, you know, take it all with a grain of salt.But again, if it's making you feel good, even if it's a placebo, then great.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.And by the way, please don't put sage in your bong and inhale it.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, my God.It would kill your throat.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that would not be good for you.We mentioned – or I think I mentioned responsible harvesting of sage.About 50 percent – and this is California white sage – about 50 percent of – California white sage has been lost to urbanization.This article says, you know, the increase in non-native people saging is posing a threat.I saw that it was more like urbanization in general, climate change, fire, drought, poaching, sort of the usual suspects with stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: If it's California sage, that fire is contributing big time.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.So I'm not so convinced that that's true, that like, you know, people jumping off of Goop and buying Sage is like why that there's a 50 percent drop.But it may be playing a part.Who knows?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if there's a huge, huge decline in it naturally, then a bunch of new people coming and buying it would definitely have an impact, too.
SPEAKER_02: Sure, absolutely.Carpenter bees are the main pollinator of white sage.So the loss of sage is no good, just like losing any kind of pollinating plant is no good.And then whether or not it's bad for you, I was trying to find information. I didn't see where it was necessarily bad.As long as you keep the smoke levels down, you don't want to, especially if you have asthma or something or any respiratory illness, you don't want to be breathing in smoke, period.So when you sage, you want to blow that thing out pretty quick and keep the smoke to a minimum.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.One other thing I did see, though, that makes a lot of sense is that the smoke releases negative ions.And I saw some people say which counteract negative energy.Not true.But it does counteract things like allergens, like dust, dander, mold, which are positively charged typically.So that makes some sense.So there is some science to it, too.But also just counteract. getting away from all the science, getting away from applying any new age goop stuff to it.It does, it is like a traditional indigenous practice.
And I saw actually the Mayo Clinic was boasting about how they have a smudging room at their Minnesota, like main campus that if, because they work with so many Native American patients, that's like one of the things they offer with their chaplains.Oh, interesting.Yeah, it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't see any like this is how long you're supposed to do it because I think especially if it's something that's like a symbolic thing that you're doing.I'm not sure like you can even put a time limit on something that ethereal.But yeah, just I mean, we're not smudge advisors.I would say just don't don't. Don't throw it away like it's just some dumb thing you're doing.Like, ooh, just let me do this.Like, maybe respect it a little bit, even if it's just a placebo effect.Like, it's something that many cultures have done for, you know, thousands of years.So, like, pay it a little respect, I would say.
SPEAKER_01: So, there's a ritual to it.I think originally smudging was bathing yourself in the smoke from the sage bundle, right? That's really what indigenous smudging is.And then it kind of got translated to clearing the negative energy out of space as well.But one of the things you can do if you smudge is you can basically take the smoke and waft it to yourself.Basically run it through your hair, run it over your shoulders, down your arms. Like just take a quick bath in the smoke.Then you're actually doing like the most basic ancient indigenous practice with smudging.But you can also walk around your place with it, like you're saying.And there's different elements to it, like literally elements or symbolic elements.
And one of the first things you want to get that's typically used is a shell, right? often an abalone shell, and that's the container that you're actually lighting the bundle in, and that represents the element of water.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so not the puka shell from your necklace that you inevitably have on around your neck.
SPEAKER_01: With the Cocopelli pendant.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, something larger.And then, of course, you've got the herb itself.You bundle it together.You can call it a smudge stick if you'd like.You've got your fire.That's obviously an element.And then you've got that smoke, which is the air element.Yep.How Stuff Works, did you get this from How Stuff Works? That and other places.
SPEAKER_01: Well, somebody interviewed a writer and healing practitioner named Molly Larkin.Yeah.Who said, hey, man, if you're worried about like insulting indigenous cultures because you're not doing this right, you're not taking it seriously enough.They said that basically the way you can prevent that across the board is by having an intention with smudging. And like you were saying, an intention beyond listening to Enya.And that expressing that intention through prayer.And that that's one of like the big parts of smudging is you say like, I want to get rid of, I want to wash that man right out of my hair or something like that.So I'm going to run sage smoke through it.Or like that's what most people think of a smudging.You're getting rid of negative energy in a space or from yourself.
Right. But apparently, according to Molly Larkin, you can also bring in positive energy.So you can set your intention, whether it's to get rid of negative energy or bring in positive or both.And then you just kind of repeat that throughout the ritual of smudging.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.And just keep in mind all the science stuff we talked about.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.And one other thing, too, apparently one of the beliefs is that the ashes contain the negative energy that you have removed.And so you want to dispose of that ash on bare earth.If you've gone this far, you might as well finish it right.OK?
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.And hey, if you're going to finish it right, start right and grow your own white sage and use that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's another thing, too.They recommend do not buy from mass market retailers because they're probably not sourcing it ethically.They could be a part of the problem if there is a sage shortage.Ideally, you would buy it from a local Native American owned business.And then, yeah, the second second best to that is growing it yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Wow, man.Wow.We really did a good job here, Chuck, if I may say so ourselves.I think so.Okay.Well, go forth and sage, everybody, but do so ethically and responsibly and with respect.And that means, of course, short stuff is out.
SPEAKER_00: Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
