PJ Vogt

It's gotta be the aluminum deodorant.

The problem with this theory being that most people put deodorant on their armpits, not on their crotches, so it was no help to us.

Similarly, a third theory held that this is all being caused by scar tissue.

Somehow, scar tissue supposedly tripped up the scanner.

Maybe, but if that was true, it wasn't explanatory here.

None of our three listeners had had vasectomies, inguinal hernia repairs, or any other kind of groin-based surgery.

Online, the predominant theory remained the big dong theory.

As much material as there was, as endlessly fun as it was to talk about and, frankly, read about, I also knew it had to be wrong, or at best, incomplete.

I had three real-life men swearing on the averageness of their dongs, and I believed them.

All the internet was really telling me was that this problem was widespread.

I thought maybe I'd have better luck if I just turned my attention to the body scanner itself, a device called the millimeter wave scanner.

I reached out to the TSA for an interview.

They did not respond.

So I turned to the next best option.

Hey, PJ.

Hi, Doug.

How are you doing?

That's so nice to hear.

This is Doug McMakin, storied engineer, first-time podcast guest, possibly a little unsure of what he'd gotten himself into here.

Doug's mostly retired now, but in his busier years, he was a research engineer who led the team that developed millimeter wave technology.