Hello and welcome to The Upgrade, the podcast and the team at LifeHacker, where we help you improve your life one week at a time.

I'm Alice Bradley, editor-in-chief of

LifeHacker. And I'm Jordan Calhoun, LifeHackers Deputy Editor. And today we are learning how to

better care for our skin. And it's a little counterintuitive. As it turns out, the right answer

might not be so much soap. You might just be scrubbing off bacteria that might actually be

helping your skin.

And here to help explain our skin microbiomes is journalist's physician James Hamblin.

We have trillions of microbes living all over us, similar to how we have them in our guts,

and they're not causing problems. It is an ecosystem that is essentially part of who we are.

James is a board certified physician, public health expert, and a staff writer at the Atlantic.

James has written extensively on the topic of health, including in his first book,

If Our Bodies Could Talk, a guide to operating and maintaining the human body.

James' most recent book is called Clean, The New Science of Skin,

which explores everything from the emerging science of the skin microbiome

to the lies we're told by the skin care companies.

Jordan, as I'm sure our life hacker video viewers have seen,

you are always glowing in HackerWack videos.

What's your skin care routine?

Oh, man, I am a sucker for all natural skin products.

Let me tell you, I spend money on, well, not ridiculous amounts of money because I'm also cheap.

So I balance my frugality with my need for things that just say all natural on it.

Do I actually read the label?

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