Vendor
	Fletcher Agency Melissa Chinchillo
Original language
English
Categories
Society & Social Sciences Mathematics & Science

THE JOY OF SWEAT

Sarah Everts

The Strange Science of Perspiration

A taboo-busting romp through the shame, stink, and strange science of sweating.consequences. But humans also crave a good sweat.

Sweating may be one of our weirdest biological functions, but it’s also one of our most vital and least understood. In The Joy of Sweat, Sarah Everts delves into its role in the body―and in human history.

Why is sweat salty? Why do we sweat when stressed? Why do some people produce colorful sweat? And should you worry about Big Brother tracking the hundreds of molecules that leak out in your sweat―not just the stinky ones or alleged pheromones―but the ones that reveal secrets about your health and vices?

Everts’s entertaining investigation takes readers around the world―from Moscow, where she participates in a dating event in which people sniff sweat in search of love, to New Jersey, where companies hire trained armpit sniffers to assess the efficacy of their anti-sweat products. In Finland, Everts explores the delights of the legendary smoke sauna and the purported health benefits of good sweat, while in the Netherlands she slips into the sauna theater scene, replete with costumes, special effects, and towel dancing.

Along the way, Everts traces humanity’s long quest to control sweat, culminating in the multibillion-dollar industry for deodorants and antiperspirants. And she shows that while sweating can be annoying, our sophisticated temperature control strategy is one of humanity’s most powerful biological traits.

Deeply researched and written with great zest, The Joy of Sweat is a fresh take on a gross but engrossing fact of human life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sarah Everts is a science journalist who has written for a variety of publications, including Scientific American, Newscientist, and The Economist. More than a decade ago, she left a career in biochemistry to pursue reporting. She spent two sabbaticals at academic institutes as a visiting scholar and has been interviewed on National Public Radio and quoted as a sweat expert by The New York Times Magazine and other media organizations. She is also a self-described “sweat tourist”—“I’ll go anywhere to try out a new sweat ceremony, from the hammams in Damascus to the jimjilbangs in suburban New Jersey.”

Available products
Book Published 2021-07-01 by Norton

Comments

“Sweating makes us human and in The Joy of Sweat, Sarah Everts explains the fascinating science behind this remarkable physiological function. Perspiration doesn’t just keep us cool, it also reveals a lot about us—everything from the flavor of potato crisps we eat to the bugs in our microbiome. Everts debunks loads of sweat-related bunk and takes readers on fascinating adventures to explore how sweating helps us adapt to our environment and navigate our social networks. The Joy of Sweat provides riveting lessons about physiology, hormones, sociology, and even love.”
—CHRISTIE ASCHWANDEN, best-selling author of Good to Go

Everts, a professor of journalism at Carleton University, argues in her fascinating debut that “sweat may be sticky, stinky, and gross,” but it’s one of humans’ most crucial and least understood bodily functions. Blocking sweat and its “smelly consequences” is a big business, she writes: worldwide, $75 billion dollars is spent annually on antiperspirants. To bust sweat taboos, Everts unpacks the function and chemical makeup of sweat, explains that perspiration is “evolution’s special heat-loss solution for humans,” and takes readers on a globe-trotting tour of oddities; she participates in a smell-dating event in Moscow, and attends the world sauna theater championship in the Netherlands. Her tone is conversational and accessible, even as she describes cutting-edge science on pheromones in sweat, the potential for using perspiration as an early diagnostic tool for Parkinson’s, and the chemistry of antiperspirants. Everts has an easy hand with demystifying myths associated with sweat, such as the mistaken belief that it can be used as a detoxifying strategy or that sports drinks, such as Gatorade, are valuable aids to athletes looking to replenish salt levels. Packed full of information and unexpected tidbits, this is hard to put down. (July)
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“It makes us stink, it makes us stand out, it makes us shy — is there anything worth saying about sweat? Turns out, yes. Sarah Everts' sensitive, clever, funny inquiry into perspiration leads us on a tour through privacy, technology, history, sexuality, and ultimately the mysteries of being human.” -Maryn McKenna, author of Big Chicken, Superbug, and Beating Back the Devil, and Senior Fellow of the Center for the Study of Human Health, Emory University.

THE JOY OF SWEAT
The Strange Science of Perspiration
Author: Sarah Everts

Review Issue Date: June 1, 2021
Online Publish Date: May 15, 2021
Publisher:Norton
Pages: 304
Price ( Hardcover ): $26.95
Publication Date: July 13, 2021
ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-0-393-63567-6
Section: NonFiction
A popular-science treatment of an overlooked area of study.
Perspiration is neither a fashionable body secretion nor of much interest to publishers, so most readers have not encountered a book on the subject, but science writer and journalism instructor Everts fills that gap admirably. She begins with a few jolts. A resting human produces as much heat as a 60-watt light bulb, which is usually more than we need. Evaporating fluid consumes heat, a process that keeps us cool. Through several million tiny sweat glands, we extract fluid from the blood and spread it over the skin. Odorless until bacteria act on it, it develops a smell, unique to every individual. Though repulsive to most Americans, in other parts of the world it is considered unobjectionable and sometimes interesting. Few readers will skip the chapter on the history of deodorants, an American invention. Outside of humans, sweating is uncommon. Horses and most monkeys and apes sweat; other animals pant, roll in mud, stay in the shade, or work at night. The sole purpose of human sweat is to cool the body; despite the common belief, it doesn’t remove waste or toxins, so excessive sweating has no health benefits. Throughout, Everts mixes facts with interviews and encounters with sweat-related activities across the world: Smell-dating is a real thing, as are sauna theaters, where several hundred naked spectators watch a performance in a 185-degree arena. Fingerprints are an impression left behind by sweat, and their chemical analysis may reveal other valuable forensic information. Everts interviewed a man who underwent surgery to treat massively excessive sweating, a fairly common medical condition. A rare genetic mutation produces children born without sweat glands; if not discovered early, they can die of heatstroke. The author’s prose is sometimes flippant and dense with amusing asides, quips on stinkiness, and embarrassing encounters, but she delivers a solid education.
Fascinating information for tolerant readers.