Does swallowed gum really stay in your stomach for seven years? This episode debunks that playground myth and digs into the surprising story of chewing gum, from a 5,000-year-old piece of birch bark tar found in Finland to modern gum base made with synthetic polymers.

We cover how a failed attempt by Santa Anna and Thomas Adams to make chicle carriage tires launched the gum industry, the chemistry of flavor release and cooling sensations, what chewing does to memory, teeth, and digestion, and the costly environmental aftermath of discarded gum.

• Why humans across isolated cultures independently developed the habit of chewing non-food substances
• How chicle gave way to synthetic butadiene-based rubber, polyethylene, and polyvinyl acetate in gum base
• The timed release of sweeteners and encapsulated flavors, plus the endothermic cooling of sugar alcohols
• Chewing gum’s effects on memory, xylitol and tooth decay, sham feeding after surgery, ulcers, and bezoars
• Gum litter in London and Rome, Singapore’s 1992 ban, and recycling chewed gum into new plastic goods