1307: Water Filters | Skeptical Sunday

Today I'm here with Skeptical Sunday co-host, writer and researcher Jessica Win.

“On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the stories, secrets and skills of the world's”

most fascinating people, and turn there wisdom into practical advice that you can use to impact your own life and those around you.

Our mission is to help you become a better informed, more critical thinker and during the

week, we have long-form conversations with the variety of amazing folks from spies to CEOs, athletes, authors, thinkers, performers. On Sundays, though, we do Skeptical Sunday, a rotating guest co-host and I are going to break down a topic you may have never thought about, and debunk common misconceptions about that topic, such as circumcision, astrology, acupuncture, the death industry, weddings, fast

fashion, hypnosis, and more, and if you're new to the show, or you want to tell your friends about the show, I suggest our episode starter packs. These are collections of our favorite episodes on persuasion, negotiation, psychology, disinformation, junk science, crime and cults, and more, that'll help new listeners get a taste of everything we do here on the show, just visit jordanharbanger.com/start, or search for us in your Spotify

app to get started. Today, we're looking at what's up with water filters and purifiers. If you care what's in your water glass and you probably should, you've also probably invested in some kind of water purifier, a picture in your fridge, an attachment on your faucet, a whole integrated filtration system somewhere in the garage, or perhaps just cases

upon cases of purified bottled water, but what do you need to know about these systems, and what benefits do they offer? Are they necessary? Everybody wants pure water, but between marketing, pseudoscience, and scams, how pure is the truth?

Here to filter out the nonsense is writer and researcher Jessica Wynne. So come on, Jay, our grandparents drank from the hose. Why is it so common today to filter everything?

“Ula la, our grandparents, I remember drinking from the hose, like I can remember that tinny”

taste so vividly, and then I'd go in the house and drink straight from the tap, and our neighborhood growing up, we used to open the fire hydrants in the summer and make DIY pools in the back of pickup trucks. No one ever mentioned filters, not once. Yeah, it wasn't really a concept 30 years ago, so what happened now, we're filtering everything

because the water quality is actually dropped, or do we not really need to be doing this? Is it a trend? Is it just mass hysteria? It's incredibly subjective, so water filters claim to improve taste and odor, provide a cost effective and eco-friendly alternative to bottled water, and protect against contaminants,

like lead, bacteria, and chemicals, but most tap water is fine. So should we have distrust about our tap water that's terrifying to even ask, why is everyone skeptical of the kitchen faucet? Should we all be boiling? It's 1899.

I don't know. Look, I'm part of the club that absolutely refuses to drink tap water unless it's filtered through my brida in which I haven't changed the filter in probably months. Yeah, by the way, filter negligence, that's gross. I know, I know, I know, but object impermanence is a real struggle with filters and just

me in general, I guess. Before we get into modern filters, how did people filter water before things like brida historically? Did people bother doing it at all? They must have certainly.

Yeah, absolutely.

Humans have always filtered water, so ancient civilizations used sand, gravel, even charcoal.

The ancient Egyptians and Greeks figured out that running water through layers of different materials would clarify it. And there's actually sand-script texts from around 2,000 BCE that describe water treatment methods, too. So we've always known dirty water was bad.

Yeah, but the reasons changed. Back then, people thought bad water carried evil spirits or something they called my asthma, which meant foul odors were causing diseases. So they were wrong about why it made you sick, but right about not drinking swamp water. Well, even a broken clock, twice a day, something, something.

Right. Then fast forward to the 1800s, people started understanding bacteria and water-born diseases. London had a massive cholera outbreak in 1854, because and the water supply was contaminated. Oh, okay.

“And that's when cities started fixing their pipes and building real treatment systems, right?”

Exactly.

London began chlorinating water and adding filtration systems, so they basically reinvented

the whole infrastructure of the city and then other places followed. So for most of human history, filtering water wasn't some fancy consumer choice. It was basic survival in public health. Yeah, right. And municipal water treatment here in the United States really took off in the early 1900s.

By mid-century, most Americans had access to treated tap water that was safer than any

And our infrastructure gave us water that was filtered for everyone.

“So when did it become a personal responsibility?”

When did we go from, eh, city handles this to, oh, I need a personal water filter for my house. Yeah, that's the interesting shift. So Brida was founded in 1966, not because of any catastrophic contamination event, but because a German guy named Heiz Hancommer wanted a perfect cup of tea.

What? So there wasn't some, you know, water shed moment, but no pun intended. That's no anti-climactic somehow. It's like I was like, I'm my tea taste of crap. Let me figure this out.

Yeah, this guy Hancommer made a cup of tea with filtered water for whatever reason one time. And he noticed it was clearer, it had a better aroma. He thought it tasted better, and he was like, hell, yeah. So he founded the company, Brida, which was his daughter's name with the goal of optimizing tap water for home use.

By 1970, the first Brida jug was patented and launched.

So the entire home filtration industry exists, because one German dude was just really precious about his tea. Yeah, people take their tea very seriously, and they should. Side note here, civilized people pour water over the tea bag. If you drop your tea bag into water, people are judging you.

That's just how I was raised. Well, strong tea opinions. I respect it. I disagree with it, but I respect it. You gotta be using loose leaf tea, because 100% of tea bags have microplastics in them.

But anyway. Okay, sure. I mean, agreed, agreed, but still pour the water over your tea ball filled with your fancy organic loose leaf tea. Yeah, basically. Yes.

So there was no public health crisis, no cholera outbreak, no nothing, just better tea. What was the filter actually removing, do we know? Yeah. So the initial design was this funnel-shaped jug with a filter that used ionics, change resin, and activated carbon to remove substances that affect taste and smell.

It reduces lime scale, it just makes water softer. It was mostly about softening hard tap water. Oh, okay. So hold on. Can we take a moment and define soft and hard water, because those terms get thrown

around all the time, and I want everyone to know what they mean? Oh, yeah. Of course. So hard water just means water with high concentrations of dissolved minerals, mostly calcium and magnesium, and as the water travels through the ground, it picks these up

from rock and soil, like limestone. Soft water has very low traces of minerals, so think rain water or water treated by a softener.

So basically hard water has rocks in it.

I mean, in a way, yeah, just microscopic ones, but the effects are big. Hard water leaves behind mineral deposits called limescale on our dishes, faucets, pipes. It's that white crusty stuff, and it also reacts with soap, so it's harder to get a good lather.

“That's why your dishes spot your clothes come out stiff and your pipes and appliances slowly”

collect build up, which reduces their efficiency and lifespan. Okay. So hard water kills my dishwasher and makes my towels crunchy. I'm pretty much an soft water on the other hand. It lathers easily with soap, so you end up using less detergent.

It doesn't leave that limescale or soap scum, so things look cleaner. And it can make your skin feel smoother and your hair healthier, but it does take a bit more rinsing as I think the biggest difference. Okay, if my shampoo commercial reenactments aren't realistic, that's a water hardness problem.

Got it. Okay. I have on my house. I mean, the easiest is the suds test. So try lathering up.

If you get tons of bubbles, that soft water. If it takes effort and it feels slippery before it foams, that's hard water. All right. Simple enough.

“So do you need different filters for hard versus soft water?”

No. Filters and softeners do different jobs. So a softener removes minerals to prevent the build up on your pipes and appliances, but it doesn't clean out pollutants of filter removes contaminants like chlorine, lead, bacteria and sediments, stuff that affects your health and the taste of your water.

If you have hard water with contaminants, you might need both. Of course. Nothing can ever just be one gadget. How do I figure out which one I need? Step one, test your water.

You can buy simple test kits or get a report from your local utility company. But I'll tell you if you got hard water, lead, bacteria, whatever's in there that they will tell you.

enough. But if you've got health-related contaminants, you'll want a filter. And there are combined systems which address both.

“So we're softening the hard water, then filtering the softened water, right?”

This is like therapy for my sink. Yeah. Pretty much, yeah. I know has something, right, a bread of pitcher, zero water filters or whatever. Or the whole home systems that look like NASA, fricking, installed them.

Is our water really that bad, though? I mean, actually, no, most Americans, I'll stress most, have access to water that meets or even exceeds federal safety standards.

The problem is those standards were written decades ago.

So we're still regulating for the 1970s. Great. Our might be safe as long as I'm living in taxi driver, Aira New York, to grab a glass of water in the first place, is that why we all distrust tap water now because the regulations are outdated or is water actually more gross now?

It's a little of both. There have been some big, scary, water contamination stories, and that sticks in people's minds. Plus we taste the difference. We have health concerns, and there's now a convenience to having a personal system,

so it just makes sense. It's like a peace of mind. Yeah, there's a lot of faith in a system that you can't see most parts of. We just trust our water is safe, but when you make it tangible and feel more in control, I don't know, it seems safe for I guess.

Yeah, right. And to be fair, some of those old pipes and systems don't account for new threats. Things like lead, PFAs, which are the forever chemicals, and agricultural runoff. So some of these contaminants weren't even on the radar when most regulations were set. Some contaminants are still emerging, so regulatory standards, they're often lagging

what the public is fearing. That's not comforting that our water is safe by yesterday's definition. Your pipes are living in the past, man.

“That's like, it's still using my no-key at 33-10.”

Technically it works, and I can drop it off the third floor, but it's not going to connect

to 5G. I guess I can at least play a snake. Oh, I would love to play a snake. Remember that? Yeah.

Walk me through how these actually work though, because I look at my Brida or reverse osmosis filter system, and it's basically magic. Yeah. Most home filtration systems use activated carbon, which works through adsorption, AD's orption.

It's pretty much the opposite of adsorption, so contaminants get trapped on the surface. So think of it like a magnet for bad smells and chemicals. Activated carbon is great for removing chlorine. It improves the taste and odor, and it reduces some chemicals and lead. Oh, wow.

Okay. So the filter is hanging onto the bad stuff, and it's in there. Yes. And then there's reverse osmosis, as you mentioned, which uses pressure to force water through a semi permeable membrane.

It's like a balancer that keeps almost everyone out heavy metals, nitrates, PFAs, but it also keeps up beneficial minerals like calcium, magnesium, and fluoride. So you could be filtering out good stuff, which we agree, fluoride, part of the good stuff. We discussed this at length in episode 1073. Yeah, fluoride's not the enemy, so you want to add that back into your diet somehow,

if you choose a system that filters it out. But another thing about reverse osmosis is that it wastes a lot of water, so for every gallon purified, your dumping several more gallons down the drain. So I'm solving one problem by creating another problem. I have reverse osmosis, and I don't remember why we got it.

“I think they just said, hey, you're building a new house.”

You want to reverse osmosis to the good kind. We're like, yeah, sure. I didn't get it for the whole house, though. I have like a separate water faucet for drinking water that is that they offered a full home system, but it just seemed dumb to me to wash my dishes with reverse osmosis water

to shower with reverse osmosis water. Maybe there's a reason. Well, I guess we can talk more about that later, but what are their types of filtration systems already even out there? It seems like there's a zillion different kinds.

Yeah, there's a few main ones, so a distillation system works by boiling water and collecting the steam. It's super effective, but also super energy intensive.

You're basically running a tea kettle 24/7.

Yeah, it seems like that would turn my kitchen into a sauna and just give me a giant energy bill. I mean, more or less, then there's ionic change filtration systems, which is what most water softeners use. It swaps out calcium and magnesium, the minerals that make water hard, and it swaps

them out for sodium, which softens water. But that doesn't do anything to purify the water for health, right?

For disinfection, there are UV filters, which use ultraviolet light to kill bacteria and viruses without involving any chemicals.

And finally, there are absorption filters and mechanical filters.

So think like carbon filters or sediment filters that actually trap particles, chlorine and other contaminants. So some systems use a combo of all these technologies. So it's like a bunch of specialists. One kills germs, one softens, one traps gunk, others go full science fair.

“But if you pick the wrong one, are you just wasting money if you pick the wrong one?”

I mean, potentially, yeah, that can be the case. So the key is knowing what problem you're trying to solve. If it's just chlorine taste, a cheap rid of it, your work's just fine. But if you've led pipes, cool for you on having an old house, but you need something certified for heavy metal removal.

So if you're on well water, you might worry about bacteria. So you'd probably want a UV system or something even stronger. Yeah, I want the fracking chemicals out of my well water if I'm drinking it. Oh god, yeah, please. I know, well water's the worst, I think.

The following messages are brought to you by the same people who made a spestose safe. So you know it's good. We'll be right back. This episode is sponsored in part by Momentus. People will spend a ton of time optimizing workouts, dialing and protein, stacking supplements.

But one of the biggest blind spots is gut health and if that's off, everything else you're doing just doesn't land the same.

“Fiber plays a huge role in energy stability, digestion, recovery, even focus.”

It's kind of the behind-the-scenes system that makes everything else work better. But not all fiber is made equal. Momentus fiber plus is a 3-in-1 formula with soluble fiber, insoluble fiber, and a pre-biotic resistance starch. So you're supporting your gut from start to finish.

Oh, I know what you mean by finish. It feeds beneficial gut bacteria improves digestion, helps keep your energy steady instead of spiking and crashing. I've been using it and it just makes everything feel more dialed in. And Jen's also added momentous creatine shoes to her daily routine, super convenient, actually

tastes good, easy way to get her 3-to-5 grams a day without thinking about it. That's one of the things we like about Momentus overall. They make clean, thoughtfully formulated products and everything is NSF certified for sports, so you know it's been tested and you can actually trust what's in it.

Right now, Momentus is offering our listeners up to 35% off your first order with PrimaCode

JHS. Head to livemomentus.com and use PrimaCode JHS for up to 35% off your first order. But livemomentus.com PrimaCode JHS. This episode is sponsored and part by Marathon. At Marathon Gastations, every stop is the start of fun.

Like the awesome feel savings you can get with Marathon rewards. Join Marathon rewards today and start earning rewards on every gallon of gas. You can redeem rewards at any time, saving up to $1 per gallon.

“And don't forget, Marathon stations are packed with all the conveniences you need to stock”

up and live life on the go. Marathon, where fun runs on full, available at participating Marathon locations, turns and conditions apply. See Marathon rewards.com for details. Don't forget about our newsletter, wee bit wiser, comes out just about every Wednesday.

Very practical, something you can apply right away that will help you with your psychology, your relationships, your mindset, or something along those lines and hey, it's a two minute read, not going to waste your time, Jordanharbinger.com/news is where you can find it. Now back to Skeptical Sunday. I grew up drinking a lot of well water up north, but now I feel like people drink well water

in 2025, your kind of role in the dice, depending on where you live. Yeah, where well water is used has the highest concentrations of people with cancer. Are we sure about that? That's crazy and scary. There's a lot of reports on it.

There's nothing definitive that this is the main cause because a lot of things cause cancer, but there is some seems to be some kind of correlation.

That is really scary, but filters are amazing on what they can remove.

Like they can take out crazy stuff. Yeah, I mean, they are. They can remove a lot. Yeah, so water filters can reduce or eliminate a lot of harmful substances. A filter provides a first line defense against toxins and there are over 120 toxins that

have been identified as being able to exist in the water supply. 120 toxins, that seems excessive. I know, and some of these are common, including cryptosporidium. Okay, not a crypto bro, you're going to have to explain what that is. Yeah, it's the name for what's really common.

It's an extremely nasty parasite that causes severe gastrointestinal discomfort and sickness. Sounds like my cousin Chris. Yeah. It's getting Chris. What are utilities, invest heavily in systems and technologies to fight these parasites and

remove them from the public water supply, but your own water filter system gives you that extra defense at the point where you need it most, the tap. If it's saving me from waterborne illnesses, I'm all in.

Yeah, definitely.

Filter out the bacteria, the viruses, the parasites, everything you can.

Yeah. What can't home filters remove? Is there anything? Yeah, it's a simpler filters like Brida. They can't remove nitrates or hormones, bacteria, viruses, and performance varies wildly.

By brand, it's a bummer, but studies show that several of the cheap Amazon filters remove exactly zero contaminants. Oh, my God. So we're buying expensive plastic cosplay. We are.

Amazon branding is so frustrating, especially when it comes to wellness and health products. They pretty much say, hey, this filter identifies as functional, but it absolutely doesn't.

“So you need to read the fine print, read the real reviews when buying anything on Amazon.”

We had our fridge serviced a zillion years ago. I can't remember, but he was like, oh, I'm going to change your filter because it's a courtesy. We do when we come and fix anything, if your filter is old, and we're like, how much are these?

They're $90. That's a lot for an ice filter and he's like, yeah, you can get cheaper ones on Amazon, but let me tell you right now, don't get cheaper ones on Amazon and I said, why not? And he's like, I service a lot of fridges, as you might imagine, and a lot of times, I will open up the ice filter for the water and the ice maker and he's like, I find empty

plastic cartridges, they never put a filter element in there at all.

And not only is there nothing in there that filters anything, but it's just full of disgusting mold because it doesn't have the antibacterial stuff, and it's just like a piece of plastic that you get conned into buying because it's cheaper.

“Yeah, it gets wet against dry, yeah, it gets wet against dry, or they'll just stuff”

it with basically cotton, and it's just rotting in there with mold and gross stuff growing on it, because you can't just make a water filter out of anything, it has to be something that we're bacteria doesn't grow in it generally and mold. So people are getting sick from these things, because they wanted to save money by buying a fridge filter on Amazon, and it's a good advice for all products to read real reviews of

the product. And if you're really unsure, if you're just like, I'm on the fence, but I stand to save a lot of money, buy a three pack, open one of them up and look inside and see if it actually has a filter in there.

And if it does, then roll the dice, but if it's empty plastic, return the whole thing

and write a one star review, save everybody else from trouble. And I unfortunately think that's probably really common, and maintenance really matters. And even if you do have a legitimate filter, but you don't replace it, that bacteria and mold will still grow inside them. So an neglected filter can make your water dirtier than your tap.

So if nothing else comes from this conversation, please go change your water filters. Whatever you use, it doesn't matter, just go change it, because what we can't see is terrifying. Yeah, wow, ridiculously disgusting actually. So these water pictures are like small bacterial ecosystems and people's fridges. You'd be surprised how often that's true.

So modern filtration systems have sensors that tell you when to change the filters, but those old school pictures rely on you just remembering. So if the water starts tasting bad, or a big tell is if it's taking longer to filter through, that filter is overdue for a replacement.

“And you should never wash those pictures in hot water, because that can degrade the plastic.”

And then it releases micro plastics. So you actually want to replace the whole picture every couple years, too. Oh, yeah, micro plastics, the uninvited guest did every meal. So we can't really avoid these, but you can get rid of some of them. So those aren't getting filtered out.

When we say micro here, we really mean micro. We're talking pieces of plastic smaller than five millimeters. Those can break down to less than one millimeter. These plastics get so tiny or breathing microplastic particles that are in the air. So they can be tiny enough to slip through the best filtration systems.

So even the fancy filters can't catch them. Reverse osmosis, like you have those systems do the absolute best job at reducing micro plastics, but even they aren't perfect. They can be up there, like maybe 99%, but there's no getting around it. We are ingesting microplastics and researchers are still figuring out what that means for

our long-term health. And here's some other frustrating news. If you're water bottle, your picture, whatever you use as a water container, if it's made of plastic or has a plastic cap, you're definitely drinking some plastic. Great.

Cool, love that for us. I've been told that avoiding microplastics is not even really realistic, but avoiding

So maybe we should use a glass for our water whenever we can, I mean, basically don't

“drink anything out of plastic bottles, right?”

So if I skip all that and I do drink from the tap, how safe is the U.S. water supply really? The U.S. has one of the safest drinking water supplies in the world. So over 90% of Americans receive water from systems regulated under the safe drinking water act.

Last in 1974, public water systems must meet EPA standards for many contaminants like bacteria and metals like lead and arsenic. So there's monitoring. There's testing and enforcement. I know we hear the horror stories, but it is pretty close to 100% of people in this

country who have access to safely managed drinking water. And if you're listening and you don't, I'm so sorry, but for most of us, it's not a problem. Okay, so we're not living in a dystopia. No, probably not yet, yet, but there's huge variability.

So water quality differs by state, by county, whether you have public or private systems and how old your pipes are. And the source water, meaning if you have groundwater versus surface water and what pollution

doure is nearby, so over 15 million American homes get water from private wells that aren't

under the same regulations.

“So 15 million homes are just like on their own, basically, or what?”

Yeah, and like I said before, I mean, some studies are showing higher cancer rates exist among the people with well water. Other communities test positive for various emerging contaminants, those forever chemicals, the PFAs were found in drinking water sources that possibly affected tens of millions of people.

So about 25 million Americans drink from a water system that has some violation records. An aging infrastructure means old pipes can reach lead, rust, and sediments. But even with these violations, the water still isn't bad enough to cause serious illness. OK, so overall safe, but with significant asterisks, depending on geography and whether anyone's paying attention.

Yeah, right.

Also, safe doesn't always mean perfect taste or no odor or no risk of emerging contaminants.

It really depends where you are. I see. So it's always surprising to me when I'm in New York City, people drink the tap water. It's just, it's famous for being good quality. Everyone drinks it.

Detroit is also the same because we have the great lakes and everyone's like, "Hey, the water's actually really good here. It's kind of like really?" The water is fine. But it is.

I mean, it's about the source and what's added to their water. So New York City gets water from protected water sheds up in the Catskills, which is naturally soft. So minimal treatment is needed. The Florida's water comes from limestone aquifers, making it hard and mineral heavy.

So most people there don't drink the tap water. The Midwest often has agricultural run-off concerns. I have a friend in Austin, Texas with a pond who says, "If she uses water from the hose in her pond, it will kill the whole ecosystem, all her fish will die." So absolutely not using it.

And if you ever have bought a pet goldfish, you can't just plop them in tap water. The chlorine will kill them, but humans were built differently.

“We can handle, I think we can handle more than people realize.”

Pete, yeah, think about it. You drink alcohol and you drink a shitload of it and then you like blow some cocaine up your nose and you just go to bed and you're not dead the next day. Well, now if the fentanyl is in a different story, but you can put all kinds of crap in your body.

Yeah, we're tough. Yeah, we're tough. Yes, okay. You know, best. You know, first-hand.

So depending on your zip code, you're either drinking avion or tap water. Why do we treat clean water like it's optional in some areas? Because infrastructure doesn't vote and it is where some places, we underfund a lot of these systems, especially in poorer communities, until disaster strikes, right? We'll send billionaires to space, but some American towns can't afford to replace

century old pipes. So where is the cleanest water in the world? Fiji. No, I'm kidding. I have Poland spring, I hear that's pretty clean.

The cleanest, municipal water in the world, it's either Norway or Iceland, they're pretty equal and it's not because they have these magic glaciers, it's because they have functioning governments who ensure their water infrastructure works well, like very well. So clean water isn't luck, it's policy. In a quality as a factor in water supplies all over the world, big cities tend to have

more consistent monitoring while small towns or tribal communities can really struggle.

It highlighted a symptom of neglect.

Jackson, Mississippi was another example of out of control water. The cleanest water rankings often gloss over these local spots with problems. Flint, Michigan became the symbol when it switched its water source in 2014 to the Flint River

“to save money and then unleashed, I believe lead contaminants to over a 100,000 residents.”

The water was horrible, I mean, it was really like brown and disgusting, but it's happening in places that don't make headlines, I mean, there were people who were like my water lights on fire, I mean, just stuff like that, it's just and then I think didn't they give bottled water to people in Flint for like years afterwards, they might even still be doing it, I don't know.

They might still be doing it, yeah, I think there's so many issues, I think the water

that we can set on fire when it comes out of the tap, I think a lot of that is due to

being close to fracking, but Flint was different. They just started sourcing their water from a contaminated river and yeah, it was awful. I remember those videos and there's also equity issues, people and lower income neighborhoods that aren't putting money into the water filtration systems, they need filters the most, but scams often target them the hardest and that's just one of the scams they have to deal with.

Geez, yeah, I've heard some weird stories from people about scammy sales pitches for solar panels, water filters, etc. Oh, yeah, alarm systems, all that stuff, yeah, they're classic scams, so with a home filtration rep comes to your house, look out, be really skeptical. This isn't everyone, of course, but some dishonest sales people will use reagents, which are

substances that can cause chemical reactions or they'll use outdated tests that make water look contaminated, so they'll show you brown murky water and say, hey, this is what you're drinking, but it's all theater. It's all OIC, so they're gaslighting our sinks.

Yeah, basically, I mean, they prey on fear, especially parents with kids, and then they sell

$5,000 systems that do less than a $30 picture filter. Right, okay, that's diabolical. Yeah, what are the other red flags people should watch out for? There is a trend of impersonators, which, I mean, sometimes I just can't believe they're still door to door salesmen, but there are, and these scammers will pretend to be from your local

water utility company to gain trust or your home access, and they'll have false or alarming

“claims using scare tactics like, you need to decide to do this today or you're putting your”

whole family in danger, and they give you an accurate water quality data or misleading third-party data, and they use that to sell their treatment units, so there's high pressure sales for expensive complex systems that aren't needed. And proprietary replacement filters that, quote unquote, expire automatically, and then they force you to buy replacements forever.

This is starting to sound like printer ink cartridges, you know how that's all that whole track is, constantly have them buy them. I mean, it's planned up to lessons, but for hydration, then there's the pseudo science angle that throws around terms like structured water, or alkaline filters, or hexagonal clusters, and hexagonal clusters, and energy infused water, I mean, the list goes on.

Yeah, I know people that have sworn, well, you got to have your water alkalated or whatever, and it's okay, I thought my body handled that. Anyway, the energy infused water filters, that sounds interesting. I'm in, I need that. I know, there's selling things called that.

Exactly. But it's just a name, and those alkaline water products, that craze right now is huge. You see it on bottled water labels everywhere now. The claim is that it balances your pH and detoxifies your body.

“Yeah, anything that detoxify, let me ask you, that's a bullshit, right?”

This is all bullshit. I mean, it's complete bullshit. Your body regulates its own pH incredibly tightly, like we have this dialed in, and it does it through your lungs and your kidneys. So drinking alkaline water does not change your blood pH,

and if it did, you would drop dead. So it's marketing, pseudoscience, to people who want to feel pure and a contaminated world without looking into what the labels actually mean. I can't believe they're allowed to market that way. They're just selling the emotional comfort of purity, not actual purity.

It's so, what is scammed, so irritating. I know, but there's a psychological part to this. Anything we drink has some kind of psychology to it,

Yeah, goodness. This is hand sanitizer for the soul. Yeah, and companies, they're allowed to use words like pure, natural, and my personal favorite is glacial to sell the emotion. And it's not based on any data.

It just taps into this deep psychological need for control in this world that feels increasingly toxic. Today's episode is a wet blanket on the water filter industry. Let's see what else marketing can run. We'll be right back.

This episode is sponsored in part by Quilt Minds. You know, most people get wrong about LinkedIn. They think it's about posting for attention, and it's really not. It's about building an opportunity engine,

because here's what actually happens.

When you consistently show up, people remember you. Not in an annoying way. It's more like an, oh yeah, that person knows their stuff way. And when something comes up, a speaking gig, a partnership, a new role. You're already on their radar.

That's the part people underestimate. It's not about going viral. It's about staying visible. The problem is most busy professionals. They don't have time to sit down and write thoughtful posts every week.

You got the ideas, the experience, the stories. You just don't have a band with. That's where Quilt Mind comes in. They take what's already in your head and turn it into sharp, engaging LinkedIn posts that actually sound like you.

It's like having to go straight or who understands your voice, and you can stay consistent without it eating up your time. If you're curious what I'm sharing, add me on LinkedIn. If you're interested in Quilt Mind for yourself, shoot me an email, or reach out to Jordan audience at quiltmind.com.

Quick break to tell you about another podcast, the mental illness happy hour. Since 2011, Paul Gilmarton has been having the kinds of conversations

most people never say out loud fears.

Addictions, trauma, shame. The messy, deeply human stuff. Some episodes are funny, some are quite heartbreaking. But they're always honest. I've been on that show years ago.

“And the guests are incredible in the best way.”

You'll hear from comedians like Tiffany Hattish, Mark Marin, Neil Brennan. Along with everyday people, kind of like me, who show up and share the real story of what they've been through hours on the show years ago. Good times. Paul and I go way back.

The New York Times calls it a perversely safe place to talk about fears and traumatic childhoods. Asquire called it a vital compassionate gem. Psychology today said it normalizes with so many others feel but are too shame to express.

So if you've ever felt alone in what you're carrying or you just want stories that go a layer deeper, listen to the mental illness happy hour wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening to and supporting the show. All the deals discounts and ways to support the podcast or searchable and click up along the website at jordanherbanger.com/deals.

Now for the rest of skeptical Sunday. Okay, so purified water is basically liquid anxiety management. Oh, can people actually protect themselves from getting fleeced by hydro-huxters? Test your water independently. Don't rely on someone who's also selling you the cure.

Contact your local water utility and request your annual consumer confidence report. It's free and it's required by law. It'll be happy to give it to you, actually. And it shows exactly what's in your local water supply. If you're still concerned, grab an independent lab test.

Then match your filter to the contaminants you actually have. You make sure it's NSF or WQA certified. You know, this is one of those things where doing your own research actually makes sense.

“Yeah, got it, but what do those certifications mean?”

So they mean the product which ever filtration system that you go with has been independently tested and verified to remove what it claims. So it's not just manufacturer promises and don't let strangers into your home for tests. Research companies and products before buying and be suspicious of any unsolicited contacts. But you can understand your water.

Some filters can actually remove beneficial minerals. So you just really need to know what you want your filter to do. Okay, so actual science, not just vibes.

I guess that's always a good rule of thumb.

If your water has actual vibes, I would probably call a priest, not a slumber. That's a good call. So you mentioned some labeling on bottled water. But is the water inside better or is it like a billion dollar industry built on not trusting your faucet? The fact is those bottles labeled purified are just full of tap water.

That's packaged, branded and resold. That is ridiculous. So I'm buying what I already own, but it's colder and smugger and probably has way more plastic in it. What does purified on, what does that even mean on the labels at a real term or is that just like? It is the one thing bottled water has to be is processed.

“And that's what purified means is that it's processed.”

There's so many brands of bottled water and it's possible that it's been processed by the company. It could be reverse osmosis or distillation or just basic filtration.

So half of what you're buying in bottled water is municipal water. And it meets regulations because your tax dollars are paying to process that water. So dissonny, that's just Coca-Cola's tap water. Aquafina is Pepsi's tap water. So we're paying a 10,000% markup for tap water in a plastic bottle.

That's going to leach microplastics into the water anyway. Yes, there's no gray area there.

But we produce around 600 billion with a B, 600 billion plastic bottles a year, and they leach microplastics,

and they take centuries to decompose. So plastics from the caps alone are really harmful. You're literally drinking some of the container. That's extra gross when you put it that way. Plus bottled water companies pumped from public aquifers.

“Isn't Poland's brain just like a well drilled somewhere off the highway five, probably?”

Like, yeah, absolutely. They just have a cool name and logo and Nestle is notoriously the worst. They've been accused of draining local water sources. Sometimes in areas experiencing drought and then they resell it for profit.

So they pumped from the public water systems.

They charge people for their own water. And then they get fined on the reg, but the fines barely make a dent in their profits. So they just pay it off and repeat. It's actually makes business sense for them to do that. Where do people think Poland's spring is coming from?

It's not some pure magical spring in Poland. I can assure you. And those ads that sell us glacial runoff are probably just tap water. A lot of water is technically glacial. Ah, okay. I kind of didn't really know that.

So we give companies our water and they sell it back to us with a mountain on the label. Okay. Is bottled water even regulated the same way as tap water? Or no. It's not. I was just thinking we should make some harbinger water.

Yes. Why not? God knows what's in there. I'll let you guys guess. Hey, you have reverse osmosis. We'll just fill it up here. Oh, I thought you, I will use reverse osmosis.

“That's a good idea. Just that's what I had in mind for sure. Sure.”

But no, there's not the safe regulation with bottled water and tap water. So the EPA regulates tap water under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The FDA regulates bottled water, but with completely different standards. So tap water often has stricter testing requirements. So tap water might actually be safer than bottled water?

Oh, yeah. Pretty often. And the only bottled water I have personally, it's in my earthquake preparedness kit because in an emergency during the apocalypse, I'm not going to be cheesy then. Yeah. That's a good policy. Those purifier tablets are in full stock on my end too. What about economics? Is filtering cheaper than bottled water? It seems like it would kind of have to be over time.

Yeah. I mean, let's break it down. A basic grid of pitcher is about $35. The replacement filters are around 10 bucks and you want to replace those every two months or so.

“So we're talking $50 to $60 a year plus your water bill.”

Okay. That is nothing. Basically an under sync system runs about $2 to $400 installed.

The water filter replacements are around $50 to $100 annually. If you get a whole house system that's going to be $1 to $3,000 up front plus a few hundred a year in maintenance. But meanwhile, if you're buying bottled water, say you only drink two bottles a day at a dollar 50 each, that's over a thousand dollars a year. So even the expensive filter pays for itself. Absolutely in the long run for sure. Plus you reduce plastic waste. But if you're not replacing

your filters on time, or you're just buying five different models that end up in a landfill, then you're not really being any greener. And you're not saving money if you have 12 different filters that you've trash. So filters can be greener, but only if you're not an idiot. Okay. Yes, adds up. So another thing I wonder is why are we so obsessed with filtering the kitchen water, but do people filter their shower water? Like I said, I got offered a full home reverse us

most of the system, and I was just kind of like, eh, should we be filtering toothbrush water everything that touches us? How do we make this decision? Those products are definitely creeping on the scene, but I'm very skeptical of them. Most water regulations focus on drinking water, things we're actually going to ingest. The risk from things like showering or brushing your teeth is considered much lower. I'm not chugging shower water generally. Yeah. But when water

and disinfection byproducts can evaporate. That means you can inhale small amounts or absorb

“them through the skin. Okay. So I could be inhaling contaminants. Like my pores are just”

little open doors, and I'm steeping myself like a human tea bag. Yeah, potentially. There's a joke in here about tea bagging something, but I'm just not creative enough to handle it. Why don't you take over? Just be careful with your sensitive bits, but when the water turns into vapor, and you're inhaling it, you know, it can irritate your lungs or your skin can tribute over time to respiratory issues. So chlorinated water can also dry out our skin, irritate our scalp,

can even damage our hair, and the more sensitive parts of our skin. Small children, people with

exima, asthma, or compromised immunity may benefit from shower filters, but I will say be really

careful of what you're buying. Yeah. I saw an ad for a shower filter that says it removes negative

“energy from your water. What do you think that means? It means there's a market for people who will”

believe anything. Was it called the sucker shower filter? Is there strong evidence we should be filtering our bathroom water though? Like, that's kind of what I was saying earlier. Like, do I need to care about that? I don't know. There's not. It's not super strong or consistent evidence that I can find. There are links to feeling cleaner, but there's a lot of unknown factors still. So for most people, no, this is not a major concern. shower filters can help it, like I said,

if you have sensitive skin, or if you live somewhere with heavy chlorine, or you don't like the smell of your water, then yes, absolutely that works, but you're not really doing any harm. I see. So it seems like there's a perceived versus actual risk issue here. Yeah, definitely. Why are people just filtering everything? There's also a regulatory and product gap, so there's just more consumer awareness about drinking filters than about shower or whole house

filters, but you don't need to filter every faucet. There are cost and convenience trade-offs here.

“So installing shower filter adds expense. It adds maintenance. That's other filters you have to replace.”

Most people don't want to install and replace cartridges or worry about their water pressure and flow, and there's diminishing returns. The extra filtering is perceived as giving small benefits, compared to filtering the water we drink. Plus, many shower filters are really poorly tested. They have vague claims. So I would just do a ton of research before spending any money on one.

So the whole home courts infuse spa detox system for 10 grand, not essential.

Yeah, only if you believe in exfoliating your aura, which I've seen on these products websites, and that is definitely not a thing. Plus, my aura has been through worse than some chlorinated water. I don't know, might need a little extra help. Yeah, same. I mean, it's possible to overfilter, and that can cause other problems by removing beneficial minerals, creating waste, encouraging over reliance on consumer tech, rather than solving our systemic issues. Yeah, there's something to

be said for like, oh, I'm filtering all this stuff out, and then I don't know. Maybe we should just not use flint river water for our home supply. Right. Yeah, there's got to be a balance. What about restaurants? They serve tap water, don't they? Should I care? Do I have to worry about that if the local water is good? It's fine. If you're in an area with known contamination issues, maybe stick to something in a bottle, but your pasta may have been cooked with tap water.

So it's just hard to tell, and restaurants are not required to use filtration. But we don't think about it because restaurants appear. They're so clean. They're official. The ones I tend to eat at more than once anyway. I mean, that's the hope, right? But we trust the institutions and the same water from your home faucet may feel suspect, but you go into a restaurant and that glass of water feels fine. Like we said at the

beginning here, a lot of this is psychological. Has anyone studied whether people who filter their water are actually healthier? Is that a thing that anyone's looked into? I looked into it. So it's so hard to study because there's just so many variables, leads to what's their access to health care, baseline water quality at home, work. Socioeconomic status can matter where you eat matters, but we know that removing specific contaminants like lead and bacteria reduces exposure to those

the data just isn't there. God, so for many people, this is probably theater. It's wellness theater

for your kitchen. Yeah, it's for taste and your piece of mind, sure. For your tea, your bougie tea.

“Your German tea, but if you have lead pipes or well water, it's absolutely essential. The key is”

matching the solution to your specific problem. But there are so many problems. I mean, does climate change affect water quality seems like a wood? Yeah, absolutely. Drouts, concentrate contaminants, floods will overwhelm treatment systems, rising temperatures, increase algae blooms, that produce toxins and aging infrastructure will fail in more extreme weather. There's water scarcity that makes the bottled water industries extraction even more ethically questionable. We just had a

huge hurricane that went through the Caribbean and hit Jamaica and Cuba. They're in store for huge

water quality issues, because it's just messed up the source of where the water comes from.

So we're going to have more water problems in the future. Probably, I mean, unless we invest an infrastructure, which brings us back to the central point, water quality isn't just personal, it is political. So filters can help individuals, but they're a bandaid on systemic neglect. A good filter can clean your water, but it can't clean government corruption. Yeah, and real safety comes from testing, transparency and infrastructure investment, not from individual consumer products.

So if you have shitty pipes, it doesn't matter how clean your water source is.

“What's the bottom line here? How does the average person navigate this issue of water quality?”

Start with the information, not fear. Test your water to understand what's actually in it,

and for simple concerns like taste and odor, those low-cost filter pictures may be sufficient.

If your water is only hard, a water softener may be all you need. If you're concerned about specific contaminants, then just make sure the filter you choose is certified to remove them, just match the technology to your actual problem. Turns out we don't have to fear our water. We just need to buy the right filter. The real solution is fixing our water systems, not privatizing purity. I guess at the end of the day, the goal isn't just clean water. It's clean information.

This has been oddly refreshing. So here's to clean water, clear thinking, and filters that actually filter something besides our bank accounts. Thanks, Jess. And thank you all for listening. Topic suggestions for future episodes of Skeptical Sunday to [email protected]. Advertisers deals, discount codes, ways to support the show are searchable and click up on the website at Jordanharbinger.com/deals. I'm @jordinharbinger on Twitter and Instagram.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn, and you can find Jessica on her sub-stacks between the lines and where Shadows Linger will link to those in the show notes as well. This show is created in association with podcast one. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jason Sanderson, Tata Sidelowski, Robert Fogretty, Ian Beard, and Gabriel Misrahi. Our advice in opinions are our own, and I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer.

Also, we try to get these as right as we can, not everything is gospel even if it is fact checked. So consult a professional before applying anything you hear on the show, especially if it's about

“your health and well-being. Remember, we rise by lifting others, share the show with those you love.”

If you found the episode useful, please share it with somebody else who could use a good dose of the skepticism and knowledge that we build out today. In the meantime, I hope you apply what you hear on the show so you can live what you learn, and we'll see you next time. You're about to hear a preview from Joe Loyat, a man who robbed 30 banks across California, but says the real crime scene was his childhood, where his pentacostal preacher father beat

him over a hundred times before he turned 15. For 14 months, I robbed 30 banks. Sometimes, everyone one day, the loss all sense that my life was going to be long at all. I just wanted to grab the loot and get the hell out of the dodge as fast as possible and go spend it and have fun. That was my ethos. And so I did, because all the crimes I did in all the violence I did, and starting with my dad, when my mother died, we ever see a lot of love from her

and everything like that. It's just too much for him. And when he gets angry now, he gets brutal. Like, he may have talked to me, he may have choked me, he may have done all those things, and be with a bat. He wants us dead, he's using the dead language. He could kill us or I could kill myself, but this is like, it's just a tough time for me to try and process the grief myself, and become being brutalized. I don't believe I have a future. So there's nothing inside of me,

like, oh, I got to protect my future. I better get a job. I start my research saving money for the future, none of that. Because of trauma as so intense, you're only looking at surviving

moralities, but they're too timid for me. I've seen past the curtain. Like, I become in my heart,

“like a little sociopath, looking at like, you guys are falling for the Okidoq. And I'm not the”

guy who falls for the Okidoq. I'm the guy who stabs the Okidoq and says, get the hell out of my way. I'm not buying it, right? Once a part of time, Joe lawyer couldn't handle his emotional shit. And so now I'm a criminal. I'm a bad guy. In this episode, Joe unpacks the unsettling rapture. He felt in the middle of a robbery, and the exact moment seven years in solitary forced him to confront

what he'd been running from his whole life. And the turning point that finally redirected everything,

it's not what you'd expect. Check out episodes 1264 and 1265 of the Jordan Harbinger Show.

“Quick break to tell you about a free podcast app worth checking out available on both iOS and Android.”

If you're still using one of the built-in podcast apps, it might be time to upgrade to something better like cast box. It's got a clean look, easy navigation, features that actually make listening

easier. More than 100,000 of our listeners already subscribe to the show there on cast box.

So a lot of you might already know how good it is. One thing I really care about in a podcast app is strong search. And cast box does that really well. It makes it easy to find exactly the shows and episodes you want. I've routinely used it for show prep to find specific episodes. Whether you're searching for a specific guest, a topic you're into, or an episode you want to revisit, you can also personalize your listening experience by creating playlists without

downloading the episodes. Organize your subscriptions, save episodes for later. Best of all, it's completely free and add free, which makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable. Download cast box today. Subscribe to the Jordan Harbinger Show, of course, and leave us a comment while you're there.

“Quick, Rick, to put you onto another show you should be listening to. If you enjoyed my interview”

with Havier, leave about romance scams back on episode 1195, you'll want to check out his podcast, pretend. Havier is an investigative journalist who lives in the world of lies, manipulation, and deception, and but he's still a nice guy. And on pretend, he doesn't just tell these stories. He gets inside them. He talks directly to scammers, cult leaders, and the people they've conned. He just says a way of getting them to reveal things that'll make you go away. Okay, you're just

gonna admit that. And the cases are bananas, a cyber stalking story where the victims turned out to be the stalkers, a true crime podcaster accused of harassing victims for content. No, it's not him. And Havier, spending a day with a cult leader, yes, including an exorcism, that must have been a fun afternoon. Plus he digs into the real Frank Abignail from Catch Me If You Can. Let's just say the movie took some liberties. Pretend has been featured on Netflix's Don't Pick Up The Phone,

Spotify Tagged It as a breakout hit, and it's consistently up there with the top true crime shows, Search Pretend wherever you get your podcasts.