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Stuff You Should Know

Short Stuff: History of Spring Break

08 Apr 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the origin of Spring Break in America?

0.031 - 1.473 Unknown

This is an iHeart Podcast.

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2.615 - 19.703 Michael Easter

Guaranteed human. 2%. That's the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Easter. And on my podcast, 2%, I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world.

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19.723 - 27.135 Unknown

Put yourself through some hardships, and you will come out on the other side a happier, more fulfilled, healthier person.

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27.52 - 35.522 Michael Easter

Listen to 2%, that's T-W-O percent, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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38.455 - 50.19 Jay Shetty

Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, host of the On Purpose podcast. My latest episode is with Noah Khan, the singer-songwriter behind the multi-platinum global hit, Stick Season, and one of the biggest voices in music today.

50.69 - 57.178 Unknown

Talking about the mental illness stuff, it used to be this thing that I was ashamed of. Getting to talk about this is not common for me.

Chapter 2: How did the Great Miami Hurricane influence Spring Break?

57.899 - 59.06 Unknown

Right now, I need it more than ever.

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61.844 - 68.412 Jay Shetty

Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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72.644 - 92.371 Josh Clark

Hey, and welcome to The Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and everybody else is present in spirit, and this is Step You Should Know Short Stuff. Where the boys are. Is that the song? I think so. Oh. I always think of that Book of Love song. I want to be where the boys are.

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93.113 - 95.736 Chuck Bryant

The Book of Love. Wait, you say yours. I want to hear it.

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96.357 - 100.643 Josh Clark

I want to be where the boys are, but I'm not allowed to.

102.007 - 105.611 Chuck Bryant

You've not heard that song? I didn't know Lou Reed sang a song like that.

106.032 - 107.053 Josh Clark

Do I sound like Lou Reed?

108.434 - 108.895 Chuck Bryant

I'll take that.

Chapter 3: What role did the College Coaches Swim Forum play in Spring Break's popularity?

108.915 - 111.218 Chuck Bryant

You kind of speak singing, which is Lou Reed's deal.

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112.299 - 114.862 Josh Clark

Yeah, I do speak sing. I can't put my all into it.

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115.082 - 118.286 Chuck Bryant

Hey man, a lot of people have made great careers out of speak singing. No shame.

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118.907 - 123.492 Josh Clark

That's right. All right. I might take you up on that and become a speak singer.

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123.522 - 128.991 Chuck Bryant

That's right. I mean, that's the gateway to being a white male rapper. So just be careful.

129.552 - 141.071 Josh Clark

Okay. I will be careful. If you see me with like three lines cut into my side, the side of my hair, maybe take me out for some drinks and give me some to talking to.

141.512 - 142.434 Chuck Bryant

I've done that accidentally.

143.736 - 148.264 Josh Clark

Oh, I have too. Well, Yumi did it accidentally to me, but I'm talking intentional.

Chapter 4: How did the movie 'Where the Boys Are' impact Spring Break culture?

149.385 - 149.766 Chuck Bryant

Okay. Yeah.

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150.64 - 173.847 Josh Clark

All right. So we're talking spring break. That's why you sang. Can you sing it again, please? Where the boys are. That was lovely. That is actually, they think, where spring break, the American institution of going to warm places in the spring, usually from northern universities and getting plastered for a week, came from. A book called, what's it called, Chuck?

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175.649 - 177.151 Chuck Bryant

Where the boys are.

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177.171 - 179.093 Josh Clark

Not bad, but okay.

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179.294 - 179.994 Chuck Bryant

No, speak singing.

181.076 - 183.639 Josh Clark

You got to say where the boys are.

184.18 - 185.481 Chuck Bryant

Okay. I just want to be in your group.

Chapter 5: What was the significance of Freaknik in Atlanta's Spring Break history?

186.383 - 191.849 Josh Clark

Oh, yeah, we could do that. We could do a speak singing barbershop duo. Not even a quartet.

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192.751 - 195.194 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, that's such a great bad idea.

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196.736 - 200.981 Josh Clark

Oh, we can also add the slide whistle you got me too as like an extra thing.

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201.001 - 203.344 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's our only instrument as far as I'm concerned.

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203.392 - 207.512 Josh Clark

Yeah. So where the boys are.

209.753 - 219.651 Chuck Bryant

All right. So you mentioned where the boys are a bunch and that that was sort of the big launching point for spring break. But we got to back up a little bit to some sort of ground laying, I guess.

220.752 - 244.975 Chuck Bryant

People since the 19th century, apparently American college students, even way back in the 1800s, would take little weekend breaks during the spring to like hot springs and maybe even to the coast to kind of get themselves right. And in the 20th century, early in the 20th century, the road trip was born and woman colleges, you know, woman only colleges were born.

245.496 - 249.122 Chuck Bryant

And you pair those things together and you're going to get girls going to see boys.

Chapter 6: How did changes in laws affect Spring Break celebrations in Florida?

249.843 - 253.53 Chuck Bryant

And so all of a sudden, members of the opposite sex were really hanging out with each other a lot more.

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253.73 - 256.074 Josh Clark

Yeah. This is when Biff met Muffy.

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256.615 - 275.856 Chuck Bryant

That's right. And then people started drinking a lot more like kind of out in public. Like if you went to the military at 18, like it was OK to, you know, go to a dive bar and get drunk. But that was kind of frowned upon in college. But starting, you know, around the early 1920s or so, college kids started drinking.

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275.92 - 298.89 Josh Clark

Yeah, that whole jazz age, I'm guessing, right? Probably. So there was an act of nature, a force of nature that also plays into this pretty prominently, the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 that said, try again, Miami, and wipe Miami clean. And so the city had to rebuild into the version we know today. But as a part of this,

298.87 - 309.202 Josh Clark

The nearby city of Fort Lauderdale was like, we need to get people back here. So we're going to do the thing that cities have always done and still continue to do to attract tourists.

Chapter 7: What are the alternative Spring Break activities offered by universities?

309.724 - 312.492 Josh Clark

And that is build an Olympic sized swimming pool.

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313.332 - 337.58 Chuck Bryant

Yeah, I think it was more of a novelty at the time because that was certainly the first one in Florida in 1928. And not too long after, like five or six years later, there was a swimming coach from Colgate University in upstate New York where it's very cold. He said, hey, guys, it's very cold and there aren't a lot of indoor training pools here. So let's go down to Florida.

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337.62 - 358.898 Chuck Bryant

They built this whiz-bang new pool in Fort Lauderdale. They went down there. They trained in the spring. And by 1938, the College Coaches Swim Forum was formed, and word had gotten around that it was like a good place to go train, which accidentally coincided with the opening of sort of a younger person's bar called the Elbow Room.

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358.878 - 362.272 Josh Clark

Yeah, and the Seabreeze Hotel. It sounds like my kind of place, man.

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Chapter 8: How has Spring Break evolved in recent years?

362.372 - 363.859 Josh Clark

A hotel bar, love those.

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364.441 - 364.682 Chuck Bryant

Same.

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364.863 - 387.519 Josh Clark

I don't even drink anymore, and I still love a good hotel bar. They're great. So, yeah, these college athletes, these swim teams now had a place to be, Florida, and a place to party, the elbow room. And it's just starting to kind of get back that, like, hey, there's this really fun thing that the swim teams are doing. Other swim teams kind of took part in this, too.

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387.9 - 396.631 Josh Clark

And this idea kind of spread beyond swim teams, college swim teams, to just college students who started to come down to Fort Lauderdale in droves.

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397.292 - 397.592

Yeah.

397.572 - 402.079 Chuck Bryant

They're like, I like to drink. I like to flirt. I like to be in the sun.

402.099 - 404.022 Josh Clark

I like a farmer's tan.

404.923 - 412.174 Chuck Bryant

That's right. So maybe that's a great place to take a break. And we'll be right back with Where the Boys Are.

412.234 - 413.756 Josh Clark

Where the Boys Are.

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