In this calm and deliberately boring episode, you'll listen to hundreds of quiet facts about why we cry, one of the most familiar things the human body does, yet one of the strangest, since we are the only creatures known to shed tears from feeling rather than from injury alone. We take a slow and unhurried look at what crying actually is and why we do it, since tears are made and spread across the eye all the time, and strong emotion, whether sadness or joy, can quietly turn on a flood of them. Along the way, we cover the three kinds of tears the eye makes, the tiny glands and ducts behind them, why cutting an onion makes us cry without any emotion at all, why crying makes the nose run, and why crying often leaves us feeling calmer afterward. We look gently at why babies cry before they can do almost anything else, and why emotional tears may be a uniquely human trait tied to our deeply social nature. There are many overlooked details, including why happy moments can bring tears, why a good cry can feel like a release, and why we tend to cry more easily when tired or overwhelmed at the end of a long day. Nothing here is dramatic, and nothing needs to be remembered. Tonight, as you listen, you can simply rest inside the thought that even the most ordinary subject contains more quiet details than anyone could ever notice at once.
