About a week ago I was at the airport. I got the beep. Randomly selected for the full body scanner.

Step in the booth, sir. Hands above the head. Legs spread (10% further apart than feels natural when you’re getting stared at).

The TSA officer called for a ‘male agent’ before I could see it, but I knew what was on that little iPad outside of the tube… a red warning sign right over the crotch.

I’ll spare your details, but one of two things happened – either I got an agent that was doing everything thoroughly by the book or I’ll be on the upcoming season of Impractical Jokers.

Eventually I was allowed to retrieve my bag.

This is not the first time this has happened to me. I have to assume it won’t be the last. But since I had a few minutes to kill at the gate, I tried to find an answer on why.

Turns out there’s a whole (excellent) podcast on this exact phenomenon.

Maybe this has happened to you before. Maybe it will happen to you one day. Maybe you’ve never even contemplated that there are hordes of people everyday having their genitals setting off a very serious series of airport protocols.

It’s worth a listen.