Men, Please Shower! Science (And Women) Do NOT Support Pheromone-Maxxing

0:00This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I choose option B. I'm Julie Pinero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I survived nine months in captivity and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart and these are the survivor files. Every week I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. Abducted, stalked, controlled and nearly silenced.

1:00These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're a bookshelf and you're a for you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet and pop culture. With your favorite writers, book talk creators and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed, so I'm obsessed. Listen to pro society on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Our hometown is not a test tube. 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of America plays out in one small town. Developers with right wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land. We need cities on a shining hill. This is our town, a podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social

2:03experiment and fights back. I guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to our town on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast. People wake up and go, oh, damn, wait and hold up. They change all of that? Yes. It's real. This is a wholesale attack. It is targeting black people in every federal agency. It's wrong. WIFO have never allowed that reckoning to last more than a decade. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the black information network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts. Or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, the folks, it is Sunday, September 6th, and I am going to try to keep an open mind on this one. But Robock has told me that there is a way to a woman's heart. There is a way to make yourself fell as irresistible to women.

3:05The key, don't wash ass as often. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, colloquials, colloquials way of saying it. Don't wash ass. People aren't taking, I say people men, men think the key to making themselves irresistible to women could be showering less is what you're telling me. Well, I want to clear this up. I am not telling you that I'm not telling you that that makes men sexier. I'm telling you that men think that makes men sexier. What do you think about that on the surface before you even get into, before you even dive into it? It is okay to say that sound silly. And it sounds like something only a man would say or think because there's no woman. I don't know a woman. I don't know a friend, a family member who is female, who thinks it's hot when a man has body odor. Okay. Then why is this a thing? Then why would a guy think that? Why would a guy think his body odor makes him more attractive, sexually attractive, right? Yes, yes, because this man is being told by other men on social media that you have

4:07pheromones that attract the opposite sex. And that yes, it might fly in the face of reason, but the reality is it's our animal instinct and it's within us all. And if you just let your pheromones fly freely, you'll get all the ladies. Okay. Is there some science? Do you have something in there that's going to back this up? No. But I have science. Wait, that does back it up. Then there are fools. Oh, I thought it was the opposite. So why are they saying this? Okay. All I can tell you is that Gen Z men on TikTok. You say Gen Z men. Yes. Please tell me who are they, which one is that? It's like, it's so. Is that even now? Yes, even now. Okay. So the group above Sabine. Yes, Sabine is, she only missed it by like a week. She's Gen A, I think. Thank you. Gen Alpha. But like she's on the border. She's on the cuss. All right, Gen Z, that A. Gen Z is below millennial. So yes, it's the 20 something through something. All right. Yeah, she got you got you. The ones that were all dating think they know it all.

5:08I don't know. We were all there. Listen to them. Maybe they're on to something. So Gen Z men specifically on TikTok have been bragging about skipping showers for going deodorant, not washing their hair. And they're calling it Pharamone Maxing. That is the trend's name. The hashtag is everywhere. If you look up Google Pharamone Maxing, you will see a million articles. But this is about young men letting their body odor build up to create what they call a biological superpower. They say it makes them irresistible to women. Potential power. Partners, maybe not just women, maybe other men as well. And I just all I can think of is the Verizano Bridge on Marathon Day. Wait, that's what we're waiting a minute, baby. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I don't understand. You don't shut like is there like for how long or is there just indefinite or what are we doing? I don't understand. If I want a Pharamone Max, what should I start doing today? You should stop showering. Okay, I just went for a run. Yeah. I'm not supposed to show you.

6:08Now you're ahead of the curve. Now you're hotter than most. Don't put the odor on. Just go about your day. I got shit to do today. But no, but can you talk about what the Verizano Bridge smells like on the foundation? Oh, that's what we're talking about. Yes. Look, a lot of people, we're not in this group, but we'll, hey, I'm about to run a marathon anyway, why shower? So a lot of people will show up to a run. And in particular, at the marathon, this is really bad New York City marathon. You start and we start with more elite folks because we get this privilege. So these are serious runners that we're in a group with. Elite and I also would say that there are a lot of them are from different countries. Yes, and fine. Okay. But it is one of the worst things I've ever smelled in my life and I smell it once a year when I run this marathon. Robs, it is, it's B.O. beyond B.O. And it's terrible. And that's how you start to write. You're actually pissed when you start because they're shoving and pushing and everybody's doing this thing and you have this odor on top of it.

7:10So if you're telling me, baby, those dudes are the sexiest men alive. Yes. That's what they're saying. And when you, when you, when some of those men and they are men who smell touch you with their sweat, I can still smell their stink on my arm. Like it is so repulsive to me and that's all I could think of when I was reading these stories. So it can't be that nobody is going out there and intentionally trying to smell like that. Wait a minute, baby. Wait, wait, I don't understand. Yes. I told you a story that this reminded me of. When I was in high school, I was in my English class and I can't remember which, which author it was, maybe it was Henry James, but it was one of these older authors. And I remember my English teacher telling us that he wrote a letter to his wife saying, I'm coming home, baby. And it's going to take me three weeks, whatever passage he had to take on whatever ship. Don't shower. And we were all grossed out. She's like, some people actually like natural scent. And it was a thing. And especially back in the day, he literally told his wife not to shower for three weeks. What was the day? How back in the day was this?

8:11I mean, this is like the 1800s, like that kind of a thing. Before ASAP. Before. Before deodorant, before what they knew how people could actually smell if they washed themselves daily and used wonderful scents. Okay. Okay, baby, back to this. You're telling me men are in, they stink, right? Or are they saying that that older than I am calling stinch is actually attractive and pleasant? Natural musk is what they call it. Okay. Here are some of the TikTok posts to give you some examples. Stop washing my hair at all. And now I unironically get more compliments on how it smells and looks from women. That was one post. Another post. I stopped using cologne and I've been getting so many more compliments on my disgusting onion smell than ever before. The real comments? Yeah, compliments on my disgusting onion smell. The reason you can't pull baddies is because you wear cologne and deodorant. Honestly, when they, he said disgusting onion smell, you know that smell, that body odor

9:11smell. How could he, he's saying he gets compliments on how he smells. This is what he's putting out on TikTok. Then they actually have like tutorials on how to go three days without washing before a date to build a halo effect of pheromones. So I guess the idea is you go three days before your date without showering and then you'll have pheromones just oozing out of your pores and you'll get all the ladies. I would love to have a hidden camera on these men as they go on dates and I'd like to actually see what these women say and think and what their facial expressions are. So is this one of those things, man? To each his or her own, maybe this is attractive to somebody. But it's being, that sounds okay, fine. If somebody likes a nasty onion smell and I'll leave it at that. Okay, but let's talk about the science. You asked about the science and this is where I'm just not buying any of this. What are we doing? What are pheromones? Pheromones are chemical signals released between individuals of the same species that can trigger behavioral or physiological responses, meaning you're sexually attracted to someone.

10:17These chemicals are linked to mating in animal species. Here's the deal. Human beings do not have a functional, I'm going to try to get this right, vomeronasal organ. A vomeronasal organ is found in animals and that is the organ that's used to detect pheromones. We lack the physical anatomy to process or even smell or pick up on pheromones. We're not animals, we're human beings. We don't have the organ that we need to detect pheromones. It's impossible for it to actually attract another human being. Human pheromones, by the way, have been studied for 60 years. This is something that scientists have truly looked into. The only thing. Scientists, guys, they were always trying to find a way to get women. Exactly. So there is something in male sweats specifically called Andro stadiononeau.

11:22Okay. Anyway, I can't spread it. We wouldn't know if you missed pronounce it. It's a testosterone derivative that is found in male sweats specifically. The National Institutes of Health, they actually put an upper lip application of a pharmacological dose of this testosterone derivative on women. So, put it, and the result was that it did improve their mood and heighten their focus. Women? Yep. So they said the only thing they could say is a positive mood is known to facilitate a woman's sexual response. Basically, if a woman's at a better mood, she's more likely to have sex with you. So then they were like, again, men know this. So they said, even though they were able, that was the only thing they were able to like to piece together from this derivative in male sweat. And they said, despite that psychologist and dermatologist say still there is no evidence whatsoever that skipping a shower is going to make you any more desirable to potential

12:27partners. Here's something from a board certified New York City dermatologist. Okay. Can't get better than that. Let me hear it. Pheremon Maxing takes a kernel of legitimate science, the fact that humans produce individual chemical odors and that smell can influence how we perceive other people, but now stretching it into a conclusion that the science just does not support. That somehow smelling all of your natural sweat is not going to make a woman more attractive. I can speak from personal experience. I would run for the hills if I smelled body odor on anyone I was thinking about dating. Is this just guys looking for an excuse? To not shower? Maybe. That's actually totally like probably one of the best reasons I've ever heard. So I want to take them at their word, but you think a guy, these guys are for real on TikTok. I'm pulling women left and right as soon as I start putting shampoo in my hair and bodywash

13:27on my body. I am pulling. You can't get a, what was the line in there? You can pull a baddie. What? It says the reason you can't pull baddies is because you wear a cologne and deodorant. Okay. Does he include a picture? I'm scratching sniff please. I'll themself. All right. So this all may sound funny and like you said, do what you want to each their own, but when we come back, we're going to tell you why pheromone maxing can actually be detrimental to your health and even dangerous. In the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I choose option B. I'm Julie Bignero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility.

14:29Every time I try to be alone, I kept meeting people and they were like, you smiled at us, not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind or wake up to a new version of yourself. So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and health captive for nine months. I survived and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart and these are the survivor files. I just remember this low taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who lived through the unthinkable.

15:30I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. Their stories about what it takes to make it out alive, listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're a bookshelf and you're for you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is Pro's Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed.

16:31From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters and that is the Trojan horse, whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to Pro's Society on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. Our town is small taters by most standards, right? But to the people who grew up here, it's everything. What happens when a quiet Tennessee town becomes the front line in a battle over the future of America? Developers with right wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land in the area. The first thing you see when it pops up is high nears and apple etchum. But they weren't just planning houses. We need cities on a shining hill that exemplify and embody the Christian way of life.

17:32Stop right there. Is that normal? A podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment. God need that to rule. And decides to fight back. Do not use my hard work to sell your bull. They're not just opposing what's being planned for here. Our hometown is not a test too. They feel like they're standing in opposition to an entire administration. I guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to our town on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast? Here's what you missed. And the argument is, do you want to win? If you don't win, you have no power. It's real. Those are the very people who I always say vote against their own economic interests and they complained about the very thing they were seeing. It's wrong. I knew that the issue of transgender athletes was not going well with a lot of black men.

18:36Roland Martin unfiltered. I went off. I said, this is exactly what I'm talking about. We all go scream at Chanel, but you don't want to see a black luxury company in the same bank. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the black information network. 12 seats. Those are moving south. So if you Democrats, you don't wait to 23. You better be hitting the ground going to heart in the south now. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, welcome back. Am I the only one when you tease right before break whose response was no shit? When you say, well, I can be dangerous and what, what was your tease? Why can be dangerous and why can't I think it can be detrimental to your health and dangerous? Yeah. Okay. No kidding. Tell me why not washing my butt for a week might not be good for my health. Yeah. Here's the deal. I didn't, I guess I knew this, but not really.

19:36Did you know that actual fresh sweat is odorless? Your sweat when it comes out your body is odorless. Body odor happens when your natural skin bacteria breaks down your sweat. So your body has a process to cool off. And that is when you start to smell because it's your own body's bacteria that breaks down the sweat. Yeah. Okay. So, Pharma and Maxing is actually bacteria, Maxing because when you don't wash the bacteria that is now all over your skin to break down the sweat, you now have bacteria all over your body. Okay. This trend should go away just on that. Everybody write that line, post it with the hashtag Pharma and Maxing and this trend should end. Bacteria Maxing. That's what it is. That's what it is. Disgusting. Okay. And I think. How do you get in the bed? The same sheets every night. Can you think about, Robes, bacteria, all, you have in shower for three days.

20:36Let's cuddle. Ew. Let's get in this bed. Let's share back to you. A woman wants this four day showerless guy in her sheets. No woman. At her bed because, hmm. Ugh, it just does it for me. That is so gross. And by the way, you want to actually, if you're even still thinking about it, Google volculitis, because that is where this leads to some nasty skin problems. Volculitis is inflamed or infected hair follicles that lead to red, pink, or bumps. Don't, don't Google it. Don't Google it. Don't, folks, do not do what she just said. Do not Google that. It's gross. Volculitis is what happens when you pair them on Max. Oh my God. Red, painful bumps all over your body everywhere you have hair follicles. You get bumps because bacteria, it's bacterial overgrowth. And it's painful. Not only is it disgusting to look at, it's painful. This is why people please shower.

21:38Yes, sure. And men, please understand, I believe that I can speak for all women. When I say, we don't like how you smell when you smell. We don't like body odor. I don't like ax body spray either. Like powerful pungent odors period are not something that women like. A fresh, clean bar of soap smell with a spray of whatever, clean, cologne, fine. That's amazing. But can we say to each of her own, mean, have you ever actually met someone who might even be in so in love with her guy? Like, I just love how he smells when he comes back from a run kind of a thing. Have you ever known? No. Now, everyone has their own unique smell. And I love that smell. But not when you haven't accompanied the smell with a shower. Your smell comes through even after your shower. See, that's the thing, they, everyone has, you have a unique scent. You have that. I noticed that. I smell that when you're funky. That is not the same thing. It is not. That's not who you are. That's not your scent. That's a universal disgusting.

22:39Oh my God, what did you eat last night? There's garlic coming out of your pores. It's disgusting. I mean, look, you, you can, I have, I have been in the gym. The best way I can kind of think about how this must smell or what they think they're actually achieving with whatever smell they want. I, if you have worked out in a gym in a foreign country where they eat very different foods than we possibly. And then you work out next to someone who clearly has not showered on a treadmill in a, enclosed room. It is one of the most disgusting experiences I've ever had. And that's what I think of when, that in the Arizona bridge, when I think about what these men are doing. And I, you know, look, if there's a woman out there who's listening, I would be so interested in what it is about a smell of filth that turns you on. But yes, I like someone's smell. But we, we turn. But when they're clean. But why do we turn our back? I think it's like, I mean, is this just silly or just funny or kind of a thing? Is this real or, but it seems like there are loyal followers of things that are simply

23:42clearly demonstrably wrong. Yeah. Like we can tell you this is unhealthy to do. 99.9% of women out there will tell you they don't like this. And yet you're saying, nope, I got baddies, baby. This is what you got to do. It feels like this is the manosphere thing. Like they've got like that, you know, oh, you've got low T and like, oh, my, I've got special superpowers in my sweat. Like it's this like delusional feeling like everything I do is better and, and grander because I'm a man. That's what it feels like. And men stink. You know what? I've been freaking out lately. I ran out of cologne. I'm like, oh, God, we got to, I need a new scent. I'm, I'm freaking out because I don't have it. The owner is working just fine, but still I'm missing something. You need a little extra thing. No, this one's, you brought a lot of stuff to me that can be an open mind about. I just don't understand. This one, I don't understand. I'm trying to leave room, but hey, this is when we promote these as, right, people are

24:44giving their experience, people are following that and all of those guys listening to the other guy that said, if you want baddies, right, they're listening to him. They're not listening to you who just gave fact based on people with doctrine in front of their name. There's a study, not just anecdotal because I went out and some girl said she liked my hair and I washed it in three days. No. Rose, listen to that. This is dangerous. There's no, in fact, we do not possess the capacity as human beings to actually be turned on by somebody else's scent. We do not. We do not. No, we do not. It may be we might be a little bit more of a positive mood according to that one NIH study, but you know what? There are a lot of other ways you can put us in a positive mood. Yeah. I hear flowers. Politeness, I hear. Compliments. Yeah. I hear those things too. Some of them look hot. I've turned on right now. Yeah. By the way, I love your open mind, but I'm really happy it's closed off with pheromone maxing as it should be. We just came back from a run. I'm uncomfortable because I haven't chat with you.

25:44Same. Okay. All right. And with that, everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us and please listen to me, fellas. And with that, I made me row back alongside DJ Holmes. We'll talk soon. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering the ride on his motorcycle. I choose option B. I'm Julie Pinero and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. So listen to Solita on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I survived nine months in captivity and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

26:46I'm Elizabeth Smart and these are the survivor files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled and nearly silenced. This is our story about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the survivor files with Elizabeth Smart on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're a bookshelf and you're a for you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators and plenty of over thought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. So obsessed. Listen to pro society on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Our hometown is not a test tube. 90 miles northeast of Nashville, a battle for the future of America plays out in one small

27:47town. Developers with right wing ties have purchased hundreds of acres of land. We need cities on a shining hill. This is our town, a podcast about what happens when a small town becomes the site of a social experiment and fights back. Guess you didn't move in on a bunch of dumb hillbillies now, did you? Listen to our town on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered podcast. Here's what you missed. There should not be a single law enforcement agency that does not have body cameras. It's real. Black farmers have been under attack. This is just the latest example of them just slapping DEI on anything. It's raw. And I'm sitting here going, they are playing y'all for foals. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the black information networks. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts. Or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.