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Stuff You Should Know

Selects: How Flight Attendants Work

23 May 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What are the historical origins of flight attendants?

0.031 - 3.763 Unknown

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.

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5.228 - 21.806 Jonas Brothers

Hey guys, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions.

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22.086 - 25.35 Jonas Brothers

Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but you know. Tired and sick.

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Chapter 2: How did Ellen Church influence the flight attendant profession?

25.55 - 33.278 Jonas Brothers

Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

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34.422 - 48.958 Akilah Hughes

Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is, getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is, getting a new one put up in its place. I'm Akilah Hughes, and Rebel Spirit Season 2 is about both of those things.

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49.178 - 57.427 Unknown

As I was watching these statues come down, I was thinking about what it meant that I grew up in a majority Black city, in which there were more homages to enslavers than there were to enslaved people.

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57.447 - 80.005 Akilah Hughes

Listen to Rebel Spirit Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your 20s can be so exciting, but they can also be really overwhelming, confusing and honestly just kind of lonely. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and the psychology of your 20s is breaking down the science behind the biggest roadblocks we face.

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79.985 - 99.506 Unknown

I was six years into my career, the 80-hour weeks and just the first one in, the last one out, and I ended up burning out. There was a large chunk of my 20s that I was just so wanting to be out of that phase, out of my skin, and I just really regret not living in the present more. You don't need to have everything figured out right now. You just need to understand yourself a little bit better.

Chapter 3: What were the gender biases faced by flight attendants in the past?

99.846 - 106.093 Akilah Hughes

Listen to The Psychology of Your 20s on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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107.221 - 124.41 Jonas Brothers

Hey, everybody. Happy Saturday. Chuck here delivering a brand-new Selects episode, but it's really not brand-new because, as we all know, these are reruns, carefully curated and selected by both Josh and I each week. This one comes to you from December 7th, 2017, How Flight Attendants Work.

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124.99 - 164.06 Jonas Brothers

I just got back from touring the Midwest, and I went on quite a few flights and made sure I gave my appreciation to all the flight attendants because they do such great work. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me as part of your cabin crew is Charles W. Chuck Bryant.

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164.541 - 182.25 Jonas Brothers

Filling the whole thing out is our pilot, Jerry Rowland. Captain Jairs, as we'll call her from now on. If you'd like to return your seat to its full upright position, along with your tray table. If you've lost your device or phone in the seat, don't touch it. Just come get one of us.

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Chapter 4: What is the training process for modern flight attendants?

182.23 - 199.294 Jonas Brothers

Did that happen to you? It's a new thing. What? Tell me. No, it's like a new thing on Delta and like the safety instructions, they actually take a little time to say if you've lost your tablet or phone in your seat, don't adjust it. Come get a flight attendant. What do you mean lost in the seat? What do they mean?

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199.515 - 217.18 Jonas Brothers

Like if you have, if you're sitting there and you got the butterfingers and like you turn into Jerry Lewis all of a sudden, your phone slides down into the seat beside you or in between the seat next to you. Okay. Your phone is in grave danger if you adjust your seat back upright again.

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217.22 - 234.904 Jonas Brothers

Oh, like – They say get a flight attendant because they now have additional skills in their repertoire to get your tablet or phone out safely. So at some point a memo went out to these airlines that said we're breaking cell phones because people are like, well, maybe if I just – Throw him a seat up, it'll pop out. Sure, it'll shoot right out.

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Chapter 5: How has the role of flight attendants changed post-9/11?

235.405 - 257.544 Jonas Brothers

Like I pressed rewind on life. Weird. Anyway, this is stuff you should know. I thought this was pretty interesting, actually. And it gave me even more of an appreciation for flight attendants than I had already gained over my years. Yeah. Because if you're one of those putzes who's mean to flight attendants, you're... Get off the plane. You're a jerk. Yep. Shouldn't be mean to people anyway.

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257.604 - 272.465 Jonas Brothers

Like everybody's walking around carrying their own burden that you're totally unaware of. And if you're mean to somebody, it usually is because you're not getting what you want right then. Yeah. So if everybody can just calm down and be nice to each other, that's great. But be extra nice to the flight attendants.

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Chapter 6: What are the perks and challenges of being a flight attendant?

272.545 - 294.272 Jonas Brothers

And if you don't agree with me now, I guarantee you'll agree with us at the end of the podcast. Yeah. And even in our own article here, there was an interview with a flight attendant. A couple of them. A couple of them, but one of them, one of these vets said, you know, back in the day, everyone was all excited when they flew. They were going someplace fun. Now everyone's crabby.

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294.492 - 321.351 Jonas Brothers

Yeah, but she makes a really great point. Why? She says it's because this is all post-9-11, that the added layers of security that they've put onto getting from your car onto the plane increases stress so much that you're exhausted by the time you get onto the plane, and flying has become a chore, a task. Plus, the seats have gotten way smaller. I do buy that. The legroom's gotten smaller.

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323.374 - 334.53 Jonas Brothers

And, yeah, I think that it's just kind of become more of like a let's get from point A to point B. Yeah, taking your shoes off, taking your laptop out, it's about all the extra security.

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Chapter 7: What types of emergencies are flight attendants trained to handle?

334.915 - 335.556 Jonas Brothers

No big deal.

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336.537 - 337.198 Chuck Bryant

That's what I say.

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337.218 - 355.798 Jonas Brothers

Did I tell you I've gotten kind of on board your train about taking your shoes off on a flight? Oh, to not do it? Yeah. Good. So every once in a while I'll just be like, to hell with it. I don't care. I'm taking my shoes off. I know my feet don't stink. Right. But I understand that there's people like you out there who are deeply offended by that kind of thing.

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356.178 - 368.638 Jonas Brothers

So I typically do leave them on unless my dogs are just yapping so loud I can't ignore it. But it's pretty rare these days. I think my deal with that is you can't count on everyone's feet to not stink.

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Chapter 8: How do flight attendants contribute to passenger safety?

368.999 - 392.376 Jonas Brothers

Right. And I think plenty of people are like, I don't care. That their feet stink? Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty rotten. I just want to be comfy. That's pretty rotten. We live in something called society. There are rules. But getting back to the new regulations, which is pretty much laptop out, shoes off. I mean, you still had to go through the line just like before, you know?

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392.777 - 415.334 Jonas Brothers

Yeah, it feels different to me. Yeah. It does. Different as in more time consuming? Yeah, much more stressful. Like it's not an event like it was. It definitely used to be an event in a person's life to go on an airplane. Well, do you have a different feeling when you go on vacation compared to work travel? As far as the airport goes?

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415.635 - 416.716 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, and how you feel about it.

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416.917 - 444.478 Jonas Brothers

Zero. Same stress? Yes. A lot of it, to be fair, is in my head. Yeah. To me, pretty much the worst thing that can happen to you is missing your airplane. I don't even want to imagine what happens when you miss your airplane. Yumi's like, it's not that bad. As a matter of fact, she's kind of entertained, like purposefully making us miss. Oh, your own version of cognitive behavioral therapy.

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444.498 - 459.93 Jonas Brothers

Exposure therapy, right. But I don't want to miss it. So I generate my own stress in a large part. But it does seem like much more of a process than it was before. Okay. How about you? You're fine with it? Yeah, I mean, it's no big deal. It's just shoes and a laptop. Yeah. Two bits.

460.471 - 482.309 Jonas Brothers

But it does seem like – and I read this travel and leisure article about flight attendants where the author was saying – or I think she was quoting a flight attendant who was saying like, we've all kind of decided as a group that we're fine with just getting on an airplane and getting to where we're going. And it doesn't have to be this luxury experience.

482.53 - 508.405 Jonas Brothers

And as a result, the price of an airline ticket has come down dramatically compared to the golden age of flying. Has it? Oh, yeah, but then it has gone back up since it was pretty cheap. Yeah, but relative to, say, average income, it's, I think, much less than it was in, say, like, the 60s. Right. But in the 60s, they were cutting, like, cuts of meat on a cart in front of you. I'm not kidding.

508.685 - 526.388 Jonas Brothers

There was a carving station that they would move. I'm not kidding. I've seen pictures of it. No, I believe it. I think it's funny that that's the definition of fancy is a carving station. It really is. I mean, it is. The guy had the hat and everything. Yeah. Well, you and my extended family agree on that. But it's true. And all of us take our shoes off while we eat our carb meat.

527.189 - 551.021 Jonas Brothers

But there used to be that. There were, like, piano lounges in first-class lounge. Like, it was, like, it was an event. Sure. But the fact that it's gone is because we've all said, you know, we want to be able to travel for less cost. Right. With fewer frills. Yeah, I just kind of want to get there. I'm with you there. Yeah. If that's what you think. Or I'm with the airline industry.

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