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You should probably be swearing more

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Next time you tell a child, come on now, use your words, maybe they won't be the tame ones you'd hoped for. CNN highlighted this week some studies from the past few years that insist swearing can be good for you. Yeah, bet your - whatever. Really - the headline message is that swearing helps you cope with pain, Richard Stephens, head of the psychobiology research lab at Keele University in Staffordshire, England, told CNN back in 2019. The professor - this is an effing professor, mind you - says that swearing, cursing, sets off a jolt of adrenaline, which reinforces the body's hallowed defense reflex. You're triggering an emotional response in yourself, this SOB, scholar of Britain, explains, which triggers a stress-induced reduction in pain.

Well, I feel better already. Sure glad our daughters aren't tuned in to hear this. A caution is attached - if you use a lot of curse words, they can lose their sting and power. So deploy them carefully, like telling people BJ Leiderman writes our [expletive] theme music.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.