Why Coffee Makes You Do Your Business

James Hoff­mann, the author of The World Atlas of Cof­fee and the cre­ator of a cof­fee-cen­tric YouTube chan­nel, can tell you many things about coffee—from how to roast cof­fee, to the tools and tech­niques need­ed to make espres­so, to the ulti­mate French Press tech­nique. Then he can also get into more tan­gen­tial­ly relat­ed ques­tions, like why cof­fee makes you drop the prover­bial deuce. Above, Mr. Hoff­mann takes you on a short sci­en­tif­ic jour­ney through the human body, explor­ing the effects of cof­fee on diges­tion, gut bac­te­ria, and our ner­vous sys­tem. We’ll pro­vide no spoil­ers or gory details here.

Relat­ed Con­tent 

How Human­i­ty Got Hooked on Cof­fee: An Ani­mat­ed His­to­ry

“The Virtues of Cof­fee” Explained in 1690 Ad: The Cure for Lethar­gy, Scurvy, Drop­sy, Gout & More

Every­thing You Ever Want­ed to Know about the Bialet­ti Moka Express: A Deep Dive Into Italy’s Most Pop­u­lar Cof­fee Mak­er

The Birth of Espres­so: The Sto­ry Behind the Cof­fee Shots That Fuel Mod­ern Life