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Stuff You Should Know

Short Stuff: All about BPAs

20 May 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 21.811 Unknown

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. 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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22.092 - 33.227 Unknown

Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but you know. Tired and sick. 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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33.764 - 52.397 Robert Smigel

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy. Not quite. On Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guests, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an acapella band with their between songs banter.

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52.377 - 57.323 Unknown

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

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57.543 - 65.773 Robert Smigel

Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

68.276 - 77.828 Josh Clark

Hey, and welcome to The Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck and Jerry sitting in for Dave. So this is short stuff about the beware of the BPAs.

79.343 - 101.453 Chuck Bryant

That's right. We're talking about BPAs, specifically, well, BPA, which is, how do you pronounce that, Josh? I'm going with bisphenol or bisphenol A. Bisphenol A. There are other bisphenols, apparently, which I didn't know. And apparently, you know, none of these are good for you, even though the FDA is like, it's fine in the amounts that you're getting it.

101.669 - 127.992 Josh Clark

Stop being so uptight, everybody. Yeah, they're used in all sorts of plastics, polycarbonate in particular, but that stuff shows up everywhere. It can be in the stuff that lines tin cans. It can be in your dental work. It can be in contact lens storage containers. It baby bottles used to be. I don't think it is anymore, but it was everywhere.

128.012 - 135.841 Josh Clark

It's also now still today, the greatest exposure that people get on average is from holding receipts, thermal paper receipts.

Chapter 2: What are BPAs and why are they a concern?

239.46 - 256.247 Chuck Bryant

All of these cages and water bottles that these mice are drinking out of have BPA in them. And I think that's where it's coming from. So she swapped that stuff out with non BPA stuff. Everything returned to normal. And she was like, I think I found something really bad here, everybody.

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256.227 - 278.64 Josh Clark

Yeah, she did. She also really started to examine what BPA did. Disrupted fetal development, the eggs of the fetus that had its development disrupted, that fetus's eventual babies, those were also disrupted as well. So, yeah, she was like, I think something is really bad here. And what she turned up is that BPA,

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278.62 - 301.185 Josh Clark

BPA acts as an endocrine disruptor, meaning it mimics a hormone in our body, which does all sorts of stuff because our hormones are very, very well precisely timed. And you go over here and do this. You go over here and do that. And if something shows up en masse and is like, we're going to do all of this at once, there's all sorts of catastrophic things that can happen to the human body.

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301.891 - 327.004 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, for sure. And in this case, in the case of BPA, what it really does is affect estrogen. And estrogen has a huge effect on a lot of stuff. I think it can affect the behavior of more than 200 genes. And almost every organ and tissue in the body can be affected by estrogen. So this was a big deal. At the time, there were a lot of initial reactions of like,

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326.984 - 348.79 Chuck Bryant

you know, we're not sure how bad this stuff is for you. We're not going to do anything right now. Like the evidence is like not really conclusive because we're not mice. And so we're not necessarily going to experience the same health effects. And again, these limits are like the amount that we're getting shouldn't harm like, you know, children and adults.

348.871 - 368.227 Josh Clark

Right. That was wrong. It turns out that the limits that we were being exposed to were considered harmful or are considered very harmful now. But what's something weird, just a little thing to kind of put aside, it actually turns out that low doses of BPA have worse effects than larger doses of BPA.

368.247 - 368.888 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, that's weird.

368.868 - 385.469 Josh Clark

I didn't see anywhere that that was explained, so I came up with my own explanation. It's Three Stooges Syndrome, which is how, remember, Mr. Burns had every disease, but none of them were affecting him because they were all trying to get through the same door at once. I think that's what happens.

385.489 - 394.2 Josh Clark

When you have a bunch of BPA, they all get stuck trying to get through the same door at the same time, and it doesn't affect you like a little bit does, which can make it right through the door.

Chapter 3: What products commonly contain BPAs?

411.578 - 429.378 Unknown

Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, Nick? Huge news. 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. Yeah, a pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special.

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429.758 - 449.84 Unknown

So how did we actually come up with the name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it, and... Well, we were thinking of originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this.

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450.22 - 468.563 Unknown

We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey, Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. Oh, wow. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen.

0

468.583 - 469.644 Unknown

We don't care where you hear it.

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470.566 - 489.173 Robert Smigel

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy. Not quite. On Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guests, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between-songs banter.

489.153 - 494.1 Unknown

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

494.26 - 500.588 Robert Smigel

Listen to Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

511.163 - 512.865 Chuck Bryant

I gotta say, I'm very impressed.

513.048 - 513.43 Josh Clark

Thank you.

Chapter 4: How does BPA exposure affect human health?

513.45 - 519.214 Josh Clark

But I feel like I should say I am not a doctor and you really shouldn't listen to me with any medical stuff whatsoever.

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519.555 - 520.459 Chuck Bryant

But I called you a doctor.

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521.343 - 522.889 Josh Clark

Oh, well, then I'm a doctor.

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523.814 - 553.952 Chuck Bryant

All right. So in the United States, the FDA is who is in charge of regulating the BPA use. And in 2010, they did a four-year review of BPA studies, which resulted in 2014, basically saying, you know what? We're upholding our previous no-observe adverse effects label. As long as you don't get more than five milligrams of a body weight per kilogram of body weight per day, you'll be fine.

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554.433 - 558.72 Josh Clark

Yeah. And I think that that is a level that most people are never exposed to, right?

559.621 - 576.568 Chuck Bryant

Well, that's what they say. I mean, we should talk about some of the things, though. I know you mentioned a few things, but let me see here. Type 2 diabetes, potentially in adults, insulin resistance in children and adults, polycystic ovary syndrome, obesity and hypertension in children and adults.

577.291 - 594.039 Josh Clark

Yeah, a lot of terrible stuff. And again, this is not to mention like the preterm births, developmental abnormalities, like all sorts of different stuff that has to do with reproduction, breast cancer, tumors, like all of these things. Like it used to be like, like you said, we're not mice.

594.099 - 617.157 Josh Clark

And, you know, that whole settled science BS that like the merchants of doubt used to put out like just shamelessly. Yeah. If you look at meta-analyses of studies about BPA and its effect on the human body, like you said, that's what comes up. Obviously, you can never prove anything without a shadow of a doubt. That's just how science works.

617.698 - 625.05 Josh Clark

But it's essentially to the point where you, the individual person, can feel pretty good about not wanting BPA anywhere near you.

Chapter 5: What significant findings did Dr. Patricia Hunt discover about BPA?

802.183 - 805.039 Josh Clark

It's like a bisque made of polyphenol.

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806.352 - 808.575 Chuck Bryant

Oh, I love bisque. That's a shame.

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809.977 - 832.748 Josh Clark

Yeah, so if you're like, okay, BPA-free, great. Give it to me. It turns out, like you said, there's other bisphenols. Bisphenol F and S are now used as substitutes. They're not nearly as studied as BPA has been, but essentially the studies that are coming back are like, yeah, just as bad as BPA. It does all the same things. So essentially the focus on BPA itself

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832.728 - 848.17 Josh Clark

should have been expanded from the outset to bisphenols, not just BPA. And so, yeah, now there's BPF and BPS all over the place. And if you think that what you have is BPA-free, it probably still has bisphenols in it.

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848.711 - 850.213 Chuck Bryant

Why don't they just find something else?

850.649 - 873.013 Josh Clark

Well, they did. It's called glass. But the problem is glass, stainless steel containers, they often come with plastic tops and lids. And you have to be careful with that, too, because even if the lid's metal, it may still have a plastic liner on the top of it. And that probably has at least some sort of plastic associated with it that could be getting in whatever you're drinking out of.

873.113 - 876.657 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, but do you have to have a bisphenol to have plastic at all?

877.227 - 884.076 Josh Clark

I don't know. I guarantee if you really looked into it, it's like half a cent less than something safe.

884.396 - 884.997 Chuck Bryant

That's your answer.

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