January 3, 2025 • 39 mins
Can smiling during running improve your marathon time? Will an old age app help you make better resolutions? And is there real science behind the Coffee Nap? Will and Mango examine big and little ways to improve your 2018, including why you'll probably need to carry a plunger around with you in the New Year. Featuring Mango's wife, Lizzie.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what will?
Speaker 2 (00:00):
What's that mango?
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So you know I've been obsessed with life hacks forever
and it all goes back to this Wired article I
read back in two thousand and six. It was about
this TV show in Japan called The Edo Family Dinner Table,
and the whole show was just full of ridiculous little tips,
like if you don't have someone to water your plants
when you're away, just set them on a water soaked
diaper and apparently apparently the plant slowly absorbs the water
(00:25):
over vacation. Or if you want to turbo charge your sled,
you can spray some nonstick PAM under the sled. But
my favorite thing from it is how to immediately become
more flexible.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I can't wait. And so what's the trick here?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Well, if you can't touch your toes, instead of just
leaning over, if you take both arms and point them
out at ninety degrees to one side, and then you
slowly wind mill them around all the way to your toes,
you can actually get closer to touching your toes. It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I kind of thought this one was going to involve
PAM as well, like under your feet.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
He just slipped out into a split.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
That'd be great. But since it's a new year, we
thought what better way to embrace our best selves than
trick and cheat our way to results. So that's what
today's show is all about. Let's dig in.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh how Ticketer and sitting behind that soundproof glass
running the audio equipment from a handcrafted Nordic track down.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
That's impressive.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I guess he's getting his skiing in while he does this.
That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now today, we're
ringing in twenty eighteen with a look at some unusual
ways to better your life in the year ahead. So
we're gonna check out some fun life acts like you know,
how to beat an ice cream headache. We'll also get
a bit more ambitious with ideas like how to be
a better list or how to cram a year's worth
of trash into a single Mason jar, And of course,
(02:05):
to start the second year of ptg off Right, We've
also got a ridiculous quiz lined up as well.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So who's playing today? Mango Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Today, we're going to have a very special guest, my wife,
Lizzie Jacobs. She's been producing a fun new show for
American public media called Mashup Americans. But she also hates
whenever I talk about life acts, so we'll give her
a little quiz about him.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
All right, So to get us started, I thought we
should acknowledge the inspiration for today's show, which is the
age old practice of making New Year's resolutions. That's something
humans have done for thousands of years, going all the
way back to ancient Rome, when Julius Caesar rejiggered the
calendar and named January first the starting point for each
new year. And Caesar named the first month in honor
(02:45):
of the two faced god Janice, who was believed to
look both backwards at the previous year and boards into
the future. So by offering sacrifices and making promises to
be good, ancient Romans hope to win Janis's favor in
the year ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Right, So fast forward a few millennia to today, and
every January, a little over half the population pledges to
lose weight, or quit smoking, or I don't know, spend
more time outdoors, all in the hopes of making the
new year better than the last one. And you know,
this lasts for about a month or so until our
old habits kicked back and we're right back to where
we started.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yeah, I guess without the threat of you know, Janice
looming over us, maybe people's resolve isn't what it used to.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Be back then. Is blaming on janis, but everything on Janis.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
According to the University of Scratton, more than ninety percent
of the people who make resolutions fail to keep them.
And of course I'm guilty of this every year when
I claim I'm going to write my friends more or
finish my novel which is tentatively titled How to Write
Your Friends More. But the main reason for that low
success rate is that we set ourselves up for failure
by choosing goals that were already at achieving.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, you know, it's weird because we tend to go
for things that we've already tried and failed at, you know,
during the past year or so, whether that's going to
the gym more often or eating better whatever it might be.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Right, And so the science actually shows us that we
get a sense of satisfaction just from the idea of
accomplishing a difficult goal, which is why so many people
like making resolutions. In the moment, we feel good about
saying that we're going to lose weight this year, and
we predict that we'll still feel that way in the future.
But then when it's actually time to follow through, that
initial happy feeling is faded, and suddenly the prospect of
(04:20):
running three miles a day or whatever doesn't sound like
fun anymore.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Well, I'm glad you say that, because this actually brings
us to our first life act, because there just might
be a way to make ourselves think more concretely about
the future. And this comes from the research of Hal Hirschfield,
who's a marketing professor at UCLA School of Management. So
they're using fMRI scans and they discover that people process
information about their future selves in a different part of
(04:45):
the brain than the one that deals with their thoughts
about their presence self. And here's the crazy thing is
that this part of the brain that's associated with future
selves is actually the same one that's connected to thoughts
about strangers.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Wait, so are we actually thinking or seeing our future
selves as strangers?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I mean, we kind of are, actually, But this is
where things get interesting because it was a different study,
and Hirschfield was looking at students and having them examine
digitally aged pictures of themselves, and amazingly, tests showed that
this helped the students develop more empathy for their future selves.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Isn't that kind of strange?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
And so when this happened, they were less likely to
procrastinate on things like studying for exams. And so apparently,
if we can make our future selves feel less like strangers,
we can actually use that motivation to better accomplish goals
in the present.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
That's so bizarre, And I thought you were going to
tell us just to make more manageable goals like this year,
I'm going to learn to make an omelet or.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Something, but you should though, you should learn to make
an omlin someday.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
But you're saying, if you want to keep your New
Year's resolution, just get in touch with your future self, right,
which I mean, I guess is actually pretty easy now
with asks like old define and aging booth or whatever.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, you can get super old and second it's pretty neat.
But you know, as we mentioned, one of the most
common resolutions people make is to exercise more often. I know,
when we were in college, you always would say I'm
gonna start lifting weights on Monday, but then you just
go play basketball, and then it was Tuesday and you'd
have to wait until the next Monday.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I know, if a basketball is so much more fun.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Well, if you want a better shot at enjoying that workout. Actually,
here's another hack, and it's a quick science tip that says,
just smile and seriously, like the whole thing comes from
this long standing belief among some athletes that smiling while
exercising makes the workout feel easier, and it turns out
they're right. So there's a study done earlier this year
(06:35):
and researchers from Ireland and Wales teamed up to see
if a group of recreational runners perform better while smiling
or scowling. And the whole smile factor was downplayed to
the runners, you know, just so it didn't skew the
outcome of the test, and so they were only told
that the experiment would test factors relating to quote running economy,
which is, you know how much oxygen someone uses to
(06:57):
run at a given speech, So you can almost think
of it like economy, like how much gas do you
need to get somewhere? So first the researchers measured the
runners under normal circumstances. They weren't given any special instructions
or any techniques. They just had to run on a
treadmill until they were exhausted. Then, on a different day,
each of the runners undertook a series of four six
(07:18):
minute runs, using a different approach each time, some including
smiling or frowning continuously through the run.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
And I mean, it seems like you're telegraphing this like that,
the smiling runners outpaced the frowners.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Well, not across the board.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I mean, a few of the volunteers actually did best
while frowning, and the researchers suggested that this might have
been because those frowns were like their game faces, you know,
that game face you get on when every time we're
about to start a podcast, and that maybe helped their
you know, determination to perform well. But the most economical
results came when the runner smiled, and so the group's
(07:54):
running economy was as much as two point seven to
eight percent higher during the smiling runs than it was
during the others.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
That's crazy, So do we have any idea why that is?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Well, according to the lead researcher, the smiling likely helped
prompt this reduction and muscular tension. Now, there's one catch
to this, Because the smiling has to be sincere, you
can't fake it, so most of the runner's smiles became
more unnatural the longer the session went on.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Can you imagine trying to run.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Six minutes with a sincere smile on your face? So
if you want to boost your performance while running, it's
best to smile sincerely mango. In fact, one researcher suggests
that you save your smile for near the end of
the race and then use it in thirty second burst.
You know, so you don't wear out that sincerity.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
I love that you can just pocket you into sincerity
and then pull it when you need small slam.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
There's nothing more sincere than planning out your thirty second smile.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
It's all over my Google calendars. Here's one for any
listener who wants to be a better performer but doesn't
actually want to break a sweat. So the next time
you're at a karaoke bar and you need to hit
a high note in your soulful rendition of I don't
know my heart will go on, just try lifting a
potted plant over your head. As you sing.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So if people don't look ridiculous enough doing karaoke, you know,
you might want to add a fern to the mix.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I guess here, Well, it doesn't have to be a plant,
But lifting something heavy above your head actually can help
you hit high notes in the higher registers. And this
is one of those old chestnuts I learned at mental flaws.
But basically that weight makes your muscles tense up, which
in turn forces your larynx to stretch a little, and
that will actually help you land the high notes and
impress all the people who would have otherwise thought you foolish.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
All right, well, I'll keep that one in mind, manga.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So, staying on the subject to sound, did you know
that our left and right ears are actually each equipped
to hear different kinds of sound. So our right ears
are better suited for deciphering speech patterns, while our left
ears are better with musical qualities like pitch or timber
or loudness.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You know what.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I've read a little bit about this, and I might
be mixing up the sides here, but isn't the idea
that they're right ear is paired with the left hemisphere
of the brain, which is the side that's better at
processing verbal information.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Sure, yeah, you're completely right. So weirdly, the same kind
of right ear preference shows up in other species. So
I was reading about this earlier, and it's common for
rats and dogs and also sea lions. Oh but one
really cool thing I found out is that even apart
from its left brain connection, our right ear is also
physically better for hearing speech.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Oh, so what do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
So this comes from this joint research effort from UCLA
and the University of Arizona. But when you hear a sound,
the tiny cells in your ear expand and contract to
amplify the vibrations, and then inside these inner hair cells
convert the vibrations and send them to the brain. And
that's simplistic, but that's kind of how your ear works.
But the team measured the hearing of three thousand newborns
(10:48):
using two different kinds of sound, and they looked at
these rapid clicks like those found in speech, and then
sustained tones like those found in music. And the results
showed that the left ear actually gave extra amplification for
tones like music. Well, the right ear did the same
thing for sounds like speech.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So The weird thing is that your auditory processing really
begins with the ear itself, and that's before your brain
gets involved. And if you want to be a better listener,
all you have to do is make sure you're using
the correct ear for whatever you're trying to hear.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
That is pretty neat, and I guess helpful when you're
at a cocktail party to know which side of your
face you need to really lean in with. I always
think about which side of the face I gotta lean
this side of my face and really hard here. It
actually reminds me of something else that we're a little
too quick to attribute to our brains, and that's the
all too familiar pain of brain freeze.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So I think I know where you're going with this,
and this is an amazing trick. I not only use
this all the time, but I've taught my kids this.
But in the words of Kanye, I'm gonna let you finish.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Thanks Kanye.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
All right, So, as I was saying, most people go
along with the brain freeze name and assume the pain
is in their brain, which is why you know we
instinctively grab our heads or start rubbing our temples when
we scarf down ice cream or drink something really cold,
but there actually aren't any pain receptors in the brain
at all. Instead, scientists think the pain is due to
these spasms brought on by the quick cooling of blood
(12:08):
vessels in the back of the throat. So the next
time you need to relieve that brain freeze, you can
drink something warm or just place your tongue against the
roof of your mouth and that helps warm up those
blood vessels and gets the brain freeze to go away.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Yeah, so that's the trick, I know, Just shove your
tongue against the roof of your mouth and that headache
just melts away. But this isn't something I'm going to
tell my kids. But there's also an other way to
lessen that pain, and that's to use swear words.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I love how we're talking about resolutions for twenty eighteen,
and a good one maybe to get to your kids
to swear more.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, I mean they're already from New York, so right.
But this is a real thing. So, according to a
study at Kiel University, people who curse freely can endure
pain almost fifty percent longer than those who watch their language.
WHOA yeah, and the researchers had sixty four volunteers stick
their hand into a tub of freezing water for as
long as they could while repeating their favorite swear word.
Then they repeated the experiment, but they got to use
(13:00):
a benign word instead. And shockingly, the volunteers who swore
endured nearly two minutes of pain, while those who use
the benign words, so something like eggplant over and over
and over, they lasted just a minute and fifteen seconds.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
That is wild. Then that's a huge difference. So do
researchers know why cursing, you know, lessens the pain?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, they're not exactly sure, but their best guess is
that the swearing helps us downplay the threat in order
to overcome it. But the curious part is that the
curses kind of have to mean something. So, just like
your smile earlier, if you want to lessen your pain
by swearing, you have to limit your casual curses. And
as the researcher put it, swearing is emotional language, but
if you overuse it, it loses its emotional attachment.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Well all things in moderation, I guess, all right, Well,
before we get into more life acts, why don't we
take a quick break. You're listening to part Time Genius
(14:02):
and we're talking about some quirky ideas to make life a.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Little bit easier.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
So mego I mentioned this upfront that we would cover
some life hacks that may be a bit more ambitious
than using dental floss to slice up a cake or
some of the other really silly things you find if
you're looking online for life hacks.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
But I almost love the dumb and useless life hacks
as much as the good one. Oh yeah, Like there
was this one that said, uh, never forget where you
park your car in a parking lot, just tie a
helium balloon to the antenna.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I'm not as good.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I love that, like it just assumes that you always
have freshly filled helium balloons up of course, of course,
and there was this other one where where you turn
your hoodie around so the hoodie parts in front of
you and it's considered an accessible snack pocket. So the
picture I had this like fresh popcorn in the hood
in front of this coder so that he could just
burrow his face in the popcorn whenever he needed to bite.
(14:51):
And that was also he didn't have to move his hands.
It's so dumb.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I could totally see that being marketed toward coders. That's
pretty terrific. Although I will say that those kind of
life hacks do kind of give life hacks a bad name,
especially when you compare them to things that are really useful.
You know, like how hand sanitizer gets tree sap off
your hands, which is actually pretty useful when you're bringing
in Christmas trees or getting rid of them, and otherwise
you kind of have to sit there for like fifteen
(15:16):
minutes just your hands and scalding water.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I hate the stickiness of tree SAPs.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Stands sticky at all and much less tree sap, so
it drives me crazy. And then there was that trash
hack that you told me about that that I think
also fits the bill here.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Do you want to talk us through that one?
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Definitely? So this one is related to this zero waste
lifestyle movement that's really big right now, and it's basically
an effort to reduce the insane amount of trash that
we produce on an individual level. And to give you
an idea of why this might be necessary, consider the
fact that the average American produces about four point five
pounds of trash each day. Which is over sixteen hundred
pounds per year.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Ah, that is a ton of trash.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Actually literally, that is almost a ton of trash that
every single person produces.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
It's crazy crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
So obviously, with a population as large as ours, that
kind of trash production adds up fast. So here's a
clever way to reduce your role in the problem. Stuff
an entire year's worth of your garbage into a single
Mason jars. Yeah. I mean it might sound crazy, but
that's what Lauren Singer did, and it completely changed the
way she looks at trash.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, if Lauren Singer did it. Who is Lauren Singer.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
She's a graduate from NYU's Environmental Science program, and she
runs this blog about sustainability called Trash Is for Tossers.
And a few years ago, Singer got some pressed because
she realized that her interest in living sustainably hadn't extended
past the classroom. And as she put it, I've got
this quote here. One day I went home after class
and opened my fridge to make dinner, and I realized
that every single thing I had in there was packaged
(16:44):
and plastic. So she made this decision to go plastic
free and started making other changes in her life to
live a less wasteful life.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
And so that's where the mason jar comes in.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, that was kind of her way of keeping crack
of the small amounts of waste that she just couldn't
shake because like, even so she's sworn off buying, I
don't know, packaged goods and plastic and whatever, there's still
some random bits of paper and plastic that can't be
recycled or composted. So if you think about like fruit
often comes with these little stickers, or the bits of
plastic used to connect the price tag to your clothing. Yeah,
(17:15):
all of that's unavoidable waste. Then that goes into her
trustees sixteen ounce mason jar.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
But so she crams a full year's worth of garbage
into just one jar. How is that possible?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
She's actually even more efficient than that. So Singer claims
to have used the same jar for four years straight.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
No way.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, And if that's true, it means she's personally saved
over six thousand pounds of trash from heading to a landfill.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
I think she's hiding our trash. But that is incredible
if this is true. But it also sounds like one
of those resolutions that's too hard to achieve, So on
the blog or anywhere else that this singer have any
tips for people who are just starting to consider how
to cut down their trash.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Or yeah, she's got a whole process laid out, So
she suggests people start by getting to know their trash,
kind of like what she did by looking at her
fridge and examining that she had too much plastic packaging.
But once you've identified what kind of trash you produced
the most of, you can start looking for solutions and
ways to reduce it. So if you think about the
fact that, like you're throwing out a lot of wasted food,
(18:12):
you can start composting or maybe change the way you
grocery shop so you're doing it more often but buying
less each time, and that way you don't end up
with all this excess food you can't use. But then
the next step is to make smarter daily choices. And
this is just little stuff like bringing reusable bags or
coffee mugs with you when you're on about, or you know,
refusing plastic straws when you get offered them. But Singer's
(18:35):
biggest advice is to transition to a DIY approach. And
this is the one we'll all get held up on.
But it's things like making your own cleaning products using
apple cider vinegar, or baking soda or using citrus juice.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
For that.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Wow, I mean that is interesting.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
And for me making your own cleaning products, that does
feel like a big hurdle to getting one hundred percent there,
So I'm just not going to try it all. Honestly,
I do admire the commitment. One thing I do find
appealing about singers single jar approach is just how much
it limits her options because only allowing yourself such a
tiny space for trash, it really restricts your choices, you know,
(19:12):
for what you can consume.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Exactly Like you might look at a box of oreos
that look delicious, but you quickly realize how much less
work you have to do by eating an apple.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Yeah, and that's another tip for improving your lifestyle, and
that is to limit your options. It sounds counterintuitive, but
when it comes to choice, less is actually better, at
least according to Sena angar And. She's a psychologist at
Columbia University and she studies this paradox of choice. She
says that the greater choice can be a problem because
of the added strain it puts on your ability to
(19:42):
process information, you know, so think of all the time
you spend weighing your different options, not to mention the
fact that more choices also means a higher chance of
making a mistake and maybe even passing up on a
better option.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
So I mean, I like that idea, but what's alternative
just settling for good enough?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Actually, yeah, that that is the solution.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
And Sheena conducted a few experiments to test her theories
about choice, and she found that people got more pleasure
from choosing a chocolate from an assortment of five than
when they choose from thirty.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
And when I think about that.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Specific example, I actually get it because it is kind
of stressful when you're trying to choose from that thing
of thirty and you're looking through the guid and you're like, oh,
it's just the one with peanut butter or not. But
the idea is that if you know, if someone didn't
make the absolute best choice, they'll still be happier in
the long run because they didn't suck all the fun
out of the experience through all this endless deliberation in
the process.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
That's that's very funny because I think about things like
video stores and one of the reasons I loved browsing
in them as a kid, or libraries too, is that
because you have this entire world and you have to
walk out with only one or two choices, Like, there's
so much pressure to pick well, but then there's the
fun in choosing that and deliberating. But I mean, I
guess it's paralyzing if that's what every decision is like.
(20:55):
If I always had to choose from three thousand chocolates
to pick from, i'd probably avoid chalk, right.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
But speaking of choice, there's one that I didn't even
know I had, and that's which direction your ceiling fan
spins in. I don't know how I've gone so long
without hearing about this, but apparently most ceiling fans have
a two settings for your blade rotation, and that's clockwise
or counterclockwise.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
I honestly don't think I've ever heard that either. So
does the direction actually make a difference?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yeah, it does. So it turns out that we should
be changing our fans with the seasons, just like we
do with our clocks, and in the summer, ceiling fans
should spend counterclockwise to produce a breeze from the air
they force downwards. And then in the winter, the fans
should be switched to its clockwise setting and that way
the warm air that's risen to the ceiling gets pushed
down from the side of the room and more warm
air will be drawn upwards.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
That's pretty interesting here. Yeah, all right, so we've covered
a few tips for making home life a little more enjoyable,
and now I think we should think about work life.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
What do you say, Yeah, I'm for it. But before
we get started, let's take a quiz.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Okay, it's quiz time and we've got Lizzie Jacobs in
the studio today. Now, Lizzie's the producer of Mash Up Americans.
She also has an Emmy, a Peabody, and a couple
of bestsellers to her name from her work at story Core.
But that's not even her most impressive work. I think
you could say her biggest prize is being married to Mengo.
(22:26):
And she's here to play a very important life hacks quiz.
So welcome, Lizzie.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Thanks, I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Now, before we put you to the test, why don't
you take a minute to tell us about your new show,
Mash Up Americans.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Absolutely, so.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
The mash of Americans is a show hosted by two
first generation Americans, Amy and Rebecca, and they just like
to talk to and celebrate some of the most exciting
mashups in America today, and those are people who are
first generation American, who are in mixed cultural couples, are
from mixed cultural families, and just really about being at
(22:59):
the inner section of culture where that is a very
exciting place to be.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
So, Lizzia, I'm around your work a lot, so I
know a little bit about this. But do you want
to talk about some of the fun interviews you've been
doing recently.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, No, We've gotten to talk to a lot of
exciting people. One of the really fun interviews was with
Randall Park from Fresh off the Boat. He's just so
charming and he had this kimchi recipe that came to
him from I can't remember his name, but a Jewish
comedian and then he was like, but he's Korean, so
then he had to make it his own and all
(23:29):
this anyway, he was just like a totally lovely person.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
That was really fun. And then we had.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
DJ Rika on talking about twenty years of Basement bannga,
And that was super exciting to talk with the woman
who began it all about, you know, the whole twenty years.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, Basement Banger was this huge event in New York
City where all sorts of celebrities would come to do bangra.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
Yeah, and it was the longest running ever night like
nightclub night, twenty years. The only time they didn't open
was after a Hurricane Sandy because they literally there was
no electricity. But other than that they were open well,
you know, first Thursday of the month every month. And
even though I lived in New York for twelve years,
I never went to it because I'm totally a night life.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Low life, so I didn't.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
I never made it out, but I was excited to
talk about it afterwards.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
What an interesting project, and no surprise, because you're always
working on interesting projects. But I have to be honest,
the reason that we brought you on today is because
Mango says you shudder every time he says the.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Words life hacks. Is this true? And if so, why
do you hate them so much?
Speaker 5 (24:36):
I'm shuddering actively right now.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
I hate the word life hack, So I'm okay.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
With like hacking, right, computer hacking, fine, good has you know,
important to the world.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Iikia hacks.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
I like that because there's a lot of good things
you can do with those flat you know, flat pack
boxes of furniture to make. But life hacks just always
to me, seemed to reduce to some thing that some
young dude just figured out and thinks he figured out
even though grandma's have been doing it forever.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
It's just like I actually saw there was a life
act the other day about how to make tacos from tortillas.
It's like life back, you can take tortillas and make
taco It's like, yes, you can, because that's what they're
made of.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Like it was just one of those things, you.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
Know, or life heck, you know, try to sipper your
laundry before you do it's like.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yeah, your mom did that, you just.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Didn't no attention.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
So I find it to be kind of this like
columbusy or you know, sort of like dutification of culture
that bothers me.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I don't know. Mango's got some pretty good ones.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
He had one the other day that if you feel
you're spending too much time sitting at your desk. If
you've eaten a banana that day, put it in your
chair and then you won't feel like sitting down.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I thought it was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
It's true.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
I thought you're gonna see the bana, but it smells
so bad you had to get up and go to
the trash can at least once.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
But I don't know. Yeah, that could be.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
That's another like, Wow, you're good.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
I'm probably bitter about them because they should just have
a career as a life hack artist.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Well it's a good thing, because I think we're about
to put you to the test on these What what
game were we playing with Lizzie Mango.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
It's called real advice from history or nonsense life hacks.
We just made up.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Perfect all right.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
So we're going to read a statement to you, and
all you have to do is tell us whether it's
actual advice from history or a nonsense life hack we
just made up.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
You ready for these?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
I'm as ready as I'll ever be.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Okay, here is number one. If you need to take
a pie out of the oven, but don't have an oven,
mit handy, just use a metal dustpan to scoop up
the pie ten and keep it from over baking. It's
this real or something.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
We made up?
Speaker 4 (26:44):
I have to Can I ask a clarifying question here?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
No?
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Okay, so I'm just gonna answer. I'm gonna say that's real.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, it's real. This came from sixty years ago and
it works. But as household Hacker points out, you have
to use a metal dust pen and not a plastic one.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Right, because everyone has a metal dust pan, handy, and
everyone wants to be sticking their dustpan in the oven.
That is just you're the baked pie, right right? All right, Well,
she's one for one. Here we go number two. To
deal with shards of broken glass that you might not
see while sweeping, spread a little cracked corn on your
floor and invite a chicken or two into the house.
(27:23):
Within a half hour, a hungry hen will eat both
the seed and the glass, leaving a polished floor you
can walk barefoot on.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
No, that's a nonsense.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
That's nonsense.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Yeah, you know what, it's kind of not fair because
Lizzie's used to your bowl mango, so she was able
to read through that one.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Okay, two for two. Let's see how you do on
number three.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
To keep a beach umbrella standing upright in the sand,
Stack five to ten bagels on top of one another
on the ground, and insert the umbrella pole through the
bagels to give the base of the pole extra weight.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
That's a tough one. I'm gonna say it's.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Nonsense.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yeah, it's nonsense. We made up.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I was keeping my fingers crossed on it. Yes, it
is nonsense. Okay to left. Number four. If you're doing
work around the house, use an old potato as a
pin cushion to hold your nails, screws, and toe.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Oh totally, that's that's real.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, it's real. Supposedly, an old potato is a handy
way to carry around your nails and screws without misplacing
them on the floor and stepping on them.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Yeah, and you always have an old potato.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
So perfect.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
All right, last one, let's see if you can get
a perfect score. Number five. An easy trick for slicing
tough bread with a dull knife is to heat up
a knife, so you just submerge it in boiling water,
then watch how easily it cuts through the loaf. Is
this real or something we made up?
Speaker 4 (28:50):
I'm going to give that a real That sounds real
to me.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yeah, it's real advice, and Gizmodo's actually recommended this trick
for slicing perfect cuts of cake as well.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Wow, so so mango. So I think Lizzie may have
aced this one.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
How'd she do?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah? She went far from five, which entitles her to
a certificate of genius, which we'll put up on the.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Fridge and I will use every day.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
I can't wait to share so many more life acts
with you, good listeners. I hope you'll all check out
mash Up Americans. But thanks again for joining us, Lizzie.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Thanks Will.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Welcome back to part time genius. Okay, so Will, what's
your idea for making the workplace a little more bearable?
Speaker 2 (29:39):
All right?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Two words? Coffee nap.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Well you heard it here first, folks. Coffee and naps
will make work easier apparently.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
No, no, no, I didn't say coffee and naps. I
say coffee naps. And this sounds crazy because we tend
to think of caffeine as a way to stay awake,
But if you drink some coffee right before you take
a quick nap, you can actually maximize your brain's alertness.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
So I hate this idea already because I love both
coffee and napping, and I wouldn't want to mix those experiences.
I mean, to me, it's like when castandz on Seinfeld
tried to add sandwiches to and TV to his love
making for everything, and it's screwed everything up. But my
kid cousin actually mentioned this to me, and that all
his friends are actually doing in college. So I want
(30:24):
to know why.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Does this work?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
All?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:26):
So, the way caffeine works is by clogging up receptors
in your brain that are typically filled by a molecule
called a dentizine. The basically, brain activity produces a dentizine,
and when enough of it builds up, it fills the
gaps in the receptors and it creates this feeling of
tiredness or fatigue.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
So the caffeine takes the place of the adentizine, which
leaves you feeling wired rather than tired.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Right, But it doesn't muscle out the adentizine or anything
like that. Instead, what happens is the caffeine competes for
the empty spots in these receptors. Caffeine claims some of
the spots and a dyentizine gets the others, and that
that's why no amount of caffeine can stave off sleepiness completely.
I mean, eventually, the a dentizine filled receptors, they will
take their toll at some point.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Oh, that's interesting. It's almost like filling seats on a
roller coaster or something. But why are coffee apps the
way around that problem?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Well, so sleep is the body's way of clearing out
a dentizine, and generally it takes about twenty minutes for
caffeine to work its way through the bloodstream to the brain.
So if you down some coffee and then immediately take
a twenty minute nap, by the time the caffeine hits
your brain, it'll have less a dentizine to compete with.
Then when you wake up, you'll feel way more alert
than if you just had some coffee or just taken
(31:37):
a nap.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
That's pretty ingenious. So I'll have to fight off my
knee jerk reaction and try this sometime soon. So we've
established that coffee anaps can help you get through the day.
But what else have you got?
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Well, no matter what kind of job you have, there's
a good chance you wish it paid a little bit
more than it does, and we can't help you nab
a big raise or anything like that. But I do
have a tip for how to save some of the
money you've already made, and it's a pretty simple one.
Don't shop on your smartphone.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
But it's always with you and that's.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Part of the problem.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
So according to some research from doctor Ying Zoo of
the University of British Columbia, people take a different approach
to shopping on a touchscreen device than they do on
a laptop or a desktop. She breaks down the distinction
this way. She says, the touch screen has an easy
to use interface that puts you into an experiential thinking style.
When you're in an experiential thinking mode, you crave excitement,
(32:26):
a different kind of experience. When you're on the desktop
with all the work emails, that interface puts you in
a rational thinking style. While you're in a rational thinking style,
when you assess a product, you know you look for
something with functionality and specific uses.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
So we're more likely to make frivolous impulse buys on
a smartphone and practical purchases on the PC pretty much.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
And Zoo conducted an experiment where students were offered the
same collection of products on an iPod touch and then
on a desktop PC, and in both cases, students went
for the more indulgent items on the iPod and more
practical items on the PC.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Is that wild?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
That's crazy?
Speaker 3 (33:03):
But apparently there's just something fun about the touchscreen interface
that encourages us to opt for more hedonistic purchases like
movie tickets or pizza delivery. So if you're trying to
save some cash, delete that Amazon app and step away
from your smartphone.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
That's so funny, because like, we don't use things like
seamless on our desktop, but we do use them on
our phone and iPad at our house, and so we
probably order more from it. But I would say, like,
if the mere thought of, you know, separating yourself from
your iPhone gives you separation anxiety, actually have one last
money saving life act that I want to share as
an alternative, And it's really good because if you do
(33:38):
it right, you can turn one first class airplane ticket
into entire year's worth of free meals.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Wait, one ticket into an entire year's worth of free meals.
What is this black magic of which you speak?
Speaker 5 (33:50):
Mango?
Speaker 1 (33:51):
It's super simple and one I admire for its ingenuity,
but also think is a little shameful and will never
use because I'd be way too embarrassed about it.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
All right, so what is it here?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
You goes so first by yourself a fully refundable first
class ticket on your favorite airline, and the destination doesn't
matter at all because you're not actually going anywhere. Then,
once you have your ticket, proceed directly to the swankiest
VIP airport lounge you can find and stuff yourself with
free food to your heart's content. And then prior to
your departure you can probably guess what's coming. You exchange
(34:22):
your ticket for a later day and come back and
do the whole thing over and over.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
That is downright diabolical, mego, And also, there's no way
this could ever work, so it already has some genius.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
In China used this exact ploy a few years ago
and he was able to pull it off without a
hitch over three hundred times that year.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
No way three That is crazy, And the airline never
got suspicious of the same dude changing his itinerary hundreds
of times without ever taking a flight.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Well, obviously, like that's eventually why he stopped. But uh,
you want to know the best part, Like since he
was just exploiting a loophole and not actually breaking any rules.
They couldn't do anything but ask him pull it to stop.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Oh wow, And so did he stop?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Yeah, I mean he recognized that the jig was finally off,
but he still had one last hand to play. He
returned his ticket for a full refine.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Oh my gosh, well played by this dude.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
And I know it's gonna be tough to top that one,
but I still have a few life hacks I'm itching
to try.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Well, now's your chance, because it's time to celebrate the
new year with the very first backed off of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
What luck.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
So you know, when a light bulb goes out, you
can shake it and hear a little rattle and you
know it's dead. I didn't realize there's a similar test
for batteries. Like if you drop a battery on the
floor and it bounces, it means it isn't fresh. Older
dead batteries bounce, while newer ones just thud.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Oh that's weird. That's pretty cool, all right.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Well, if you're in a storm and the electricity goes out,
do you know what works as a tiny candle?
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Crayola crayons.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Now your kids may not love this, but you can
actually burn them one by one to give yourself some light,
and according to life hacker, they'll last you fifteen to
thirty minutes each.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
So this is such a stupid life hack, but I
love it because I hate getting my handsticky or like
frosting on my face. But if you have to eat
a cupcake, take a knife and cut the bottom off
and then press it to the top to turn it
into a little cupcake sandwich.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
A great nickname for somebody. We need to decide who
to call little cupcake Sandwich. All right, Well, if you
hate crying while cutting onions, you can try this trick.
You just freeze them for fifteen minutes before you start slicing.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Oh that's awesome. So I've actually tried so many tricks
for cutting onions, from like wearing onion goggles to wedging
some bread in front of your like top lip, and
none of it works. So I can't wait to try this.
But if you're drilling something into a wall, holding an
open envelope under the strew actually catches all the wall particles,
so you don't have to sweep up after all.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Right, Well, if you want to boil a lot of
hard boiled eggs, but you don't have a that's large enough.
You just put them in the oven in a muffin tin.
You bake them for thirty minutes at three hundred and
fifty degrees. You can actually do twenty four of these
at a time and not have to worry about water
boiling over.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Oh I like that. So I know you've got a
lot of sensitive documents on hand. And if you ever
need a shredder but don't have access to a shredder,
writer Lisa Kadaiyama suggests stuffing them into a stalking and
then running them in a washing machine. And no one
should be able to read your embarrassing love letters after.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Wow, you really got to want to get rid of
some letters to be willing to do that. That's good though, Well,
you know we both love dumb life hacks, and not
that your washing machine one was that was a very
reasonable one. But I've got one that may be the dumbest.
Then it comes from Gizmoto. So if you're tired of
fighting for a handrail to hold on to in the subway,
or you just don't want to deal with all those germs,
(37:50):
as you know, I don't really like dealing with them.
Just bring a toilet plunger on the subway with you.
All you have to do is you plunge it up
to the ceiling of the train and you hold onto
the handle. You don't have to fight anyone for space.
It's such a brilliant idea, and I have no idea
why I haven't thought of this.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
I love the idea of people commuting with their plungers
just because they're like scared of germs instead of I
don't know, like carrying hand sanitizer, no plunger. But I
do think you went today's edition.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
I thought so.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
I knew that one was gonna take the crown. Well
that's it for today's episode. Now, I know there are
so many life acts that we didn't mention today, so
we'd love to hear those from you guys. Feel free
to email us part Time Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com.
You can always call us on our twenty four to
seven fact hotline one eight four four pt Genius, or
hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Thanks so much for listening, Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works
and wouldn't be possible Without several brilliant people who do
the important things, we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams
and Eves.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Jeffcote gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Maybe you could leave a good review for us.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Do we forget Jason?
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Jason who
Guess what will?
Speaker 2 (00:00):
What's that mango?
Speaker 1 (00:01):
So you know I've been obsessed with life hacks forever
and it all goes back to this Wired article I
read back in two thousand and six. It was about
this TV show in Japan called The Edo Family Dinner Table,
and the whole show was just full of ridiculous little tips,
like if you don't have someone to water your plants
when you're away, just set them on a water soaked
diaper and apparently apparently the plant slowly absorbs the water
(00:25):
over vacation. Or if you want to turbo charge your sled,
you can spray some nonstick PAM under the sled. But
my favorite thing from it is how to immediately become
more flexible.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I can't wait. And so what's the trick here?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Well, if you can't touch your toes, instead of just
leaning over, if you take both arms and point them
out at ninety degrees to one side, and then you
slowly wind mill them around all the way to your toes,
you can actually get closer to touching your toes. It's incredible.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
I kind of thought this one was going to involve
PAM as well, like under your feet.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
He just slipped out into a split.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
That'd be great. But since it's a new year, we
thought what better way to embrace our best selves than
trick and cheat our way to results. So that's what
today's show is all about. Let's dig in.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh how Ticketer and sitting behind that soundproof glass
running the audio equipment from a handcrafted Nordic track down.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
That's impressive.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I guess he's getting his skiing in while he does this.
That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now today, we're
ringing in twenty eighteen with a look at some unusual
ways to better your life in the year ahead. So
we're gonna check out some fun life acts like you know,
how to beat an ice cream headache. We'll also get
a bit more ambitious with ideas like how to be
a better list or how to cram a year's worth
of trash into a single Mason jar, And of course,
(02:05):
to start the second year of ptg off Right, We've
also got a ridiculous quiz lined up as well.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
So who's playing today? Mango Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Today, we're going to have a very special guest, my wife,
Lizzie Jacobs. She's been producing a fun new show for
American public media called Mashup Americans. But she also hates
whenever I talk about life acts, so we'll give her
a little quiz about him.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
All right, So to get us started, I thought we
should acknowledge the inspiration for today's show, which is the
age old practice of making New Year's resolutions. That's something
humans have done for thousands of years, going all the
way back to ancient Rome, when Julius Caesar rejiggered the
calendar and named January first the starting point for each
new year. And Caesar named the first month in honor
(02:45):
of the two faced god Janice, who was believed to
look both backwards at the previous year and boards into
the future. So by offering sacrifices and making promises to
be good, ancient Romans hope to win Janis's favor in
the year ahead.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Right, So fast forward a few millennia to today, and
every January, a little over half the population pledges to
lose weight, or quit smoking, or I don't know, spend
more time outdoors, all in the hopes of making the
new year better than the last one. And you know,
this lasts for about a month or so until our
old habits kicked back and we're right back to where
we started.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yeah, I guess without the threat of you know, Janice
looming over us, maybe people's resolve isn't what it used to.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Be back then. Is blaming on janis, but everything on Janis.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
According to the University of Scratton, more than ninety percent
of the people who make resolutions fail to keep them.
And of course I'm guilty of this every year when
I claim I'm going to write my friends more or
finish my novel which is tentatively titled How to Write
Your Friends More. But the main reason for that low
success rate is that we set ourselves up for failure
by choosing goals that were already at achieving.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, you know, it's weird because we tend to go
for things that we've already tried and failed at, you know,
during the past year or so, whether that's going to
the gym more often or eating better whatever it might be.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Right, And so the science actually shows us that we
get a sense of satisfaction just from the idea of
accomplishing a difficult goal, which is why so many people
like making resolutions. In the moment, we feel good about
saying that we're going to lose weight this year, and
we predict that we'll still feel that way in the future.
But then when it's actually time to follow through, that
initial happy feeling is faded, and suddenly the prospect of
(04:20):
running three miles a day or whatever doesn't sound like
fun anymore.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Well, I'm glad you say that, because this actually brings
us to our first life act, because there just might
be a way to make ourselves think more concretely about
the future. And this comes from the research of Hal Hirschfield,
who's a marketing professor at UCLA School of Management. So
they're using fMRI scans and they discover that people process
information about their future selves in a different part of
(04:45):
the brain than the one that deals with their thoughts
about their presence self. And here's the crazy thing is
that this part of the brain that's associated with future
selves is actually the same one that's connected to thoughts
about strangers.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Wait, so are we actually thinking or seeing our future
selves as strangers?
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I mean, we kind of are, actually, But this is
where things get interesting because it was a different study,
and Hirschfield was looking at students and having them examine
digitally aged pictures of themselves, and amazingly, tests showed that
this helped the students develop more empathy for their future selves.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Isn't that kind of strange?
Speaker 3 (05:21):
And so when this happened, they were less likely to
procrastinate on things like studying for exams. And so apparently,
if we can make our future selves feel less like strangers,
we can actually use that motivation to better accomplish goals
in the present.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
That's so bizarre, And I thought you were going to
tell us just to make more manageable goals like this year,
I'm going to learn to make an omelet or.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Something, but you should though, you should learn to make
an omlin someday.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
But you're saying, if you want to keep your New
Year's resolution, just get in touch with your future self, right,
which I mean, I guess is actually pretty easy now
with asks like old define and aging booth or whatever.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, you can get super old and second it's pretty neat.
But you know, as we mentioned, one of the most
common resolutions people make is to exercise more often. I know,
when we were in college, you always would say I'm
gonna start lifting weights on Monday, but then you just
go play basketball, and then it was Tuesday and you'd
have to wait until the next Monday.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I know, if a basketball is so much more fun.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Well, if you want a better shot at enjoying that workout. Actually,
here's another hack, and it's a quick science tip that says,
just smile and seriously, like the whole thing comes from
this long standing belief among some athletes that smiling while
exercising makes the workout feel easier, and it turns out
they're right. So there's a study done earlier this year
(06:35):
and researchers from Ireland and Wales teamed up to see
if a group of recreational runners perform better while smiling
or scowling. And the whole smile factor was downplayed to
the runners, you know, just so it didn't skew the
outcome of the test, and so they were only told
that the experiment would test factors relating to quote running economy,
which is, you know how much oxygen someone uses to
(06:57):
run at a given speech, So you can almost think
of it like economy, like how much gas do you
need to get somewhere? So first the researchers measured the
runners under normal circumstances. They weren't given any special instructions
or any techniques. They just had to run on a
treadmill until they were exhausted. Then, on a different day,
each of the runners undertook a series of four six
(07:18):
minute runs, using a different approach each time, some including
smiling or frowning continuously through the run.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
And I mean, it seems like you're telegraphing this like that,
the smiling runners outpaced the frowners.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Well, not across the board.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I mean, a few of the volunteers actually did best
while frowning, and the researchers suggested that this might have
been because those frowns were like their game faces, you know,
that game face you get on when every time we're
about to start a podcast, and that maybe helped their
you know, determination to perform well. But the most economical
results came when the runner smiled, and so the group's
(07:54):
running economy was as much as two point seven to
eight percent higher during the smiling runs than it was
during the others.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
That's crazy, So do we have any idea why that is?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Well, according to the lead researcher, the smiling likely helped
prompt this reduction and muscular tension. Now, there's one catch
to this, Because the smiling has to be sincere, you
can't fake it, so most of the runner's smiles became
more unnatural the longer the session went on.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Can you imagine trying to run.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Six minutes with a sincere smile on your face? So
if you want to boost your performance while running, it's
best to smile sincerely mango. In fact, one researcher suggests
that you save your smile for near the end of
the race and then use it in thirty second burst.
You know, so you don't wear out that sincerity.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
I love that you can just pocket you into sincerity
and then pull it when you need small slam.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
There's nothing more sincere than planning out your thirty second smile.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
It's all over my Google calendars. Here's one for any
listener who wants to be a better performer but doesn't
actually want to break a sweat. So the next time
you're at a karaoke bar and you need to hit
a high note in your soulful rendition of I don't
know my heart will go on, just try lifting a
potted plant over your head. As you sing.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So if people don't look ridiculous enough doing karaoke, you know,
you might want to add a fern to the mix.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I guess here, Well, it doesn't have to be a plant,
But lifting something heavy above your head actually can help
you hit high notes in the higher registers. And this
is one of those old chestnuts I learned at mental flaws.
But basically that weight makes your muscles tense up, which
in turn forces your larynx to stretch a little, and
that will actually help you land the high notes and
impress all the people who would have otherwise thought you foolish.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
All right, well, I'll keep that one in mind, manga.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So, staying on the subject to sound, did you know
that our left and right ears are actually each equipped
to hear different kinds of sound. So our right ears
are better suited for deciphering speech patterns, while our left
ears are better with musical qualities like pitch or timber
or loudness.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
You know what.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
I've read a little bit about this, and I might
be mixing up the sides here, but isn't the idea
that they're right ear is paired with the left hemisphere
of the brain, which is the side that's better at
processing verbal information.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Sure, yeah, you're completely right. So weirdly, the same kind
of right ear preference shows up in other species. So
I was reading about this earlier, and it's common for
rats and dogs and also sea lions. Oh but one
really cool thing I found out is that even apart
from its left brain connection, our right ear is also
physically better for hearing speech.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Oh, so what do you mean by that?
Speaker 1 (10:27):
So this comes from this joint research effort from UCLA
and the University of Arizona. But when you hear a sound,
the tiny cells in your ear expand and contract to
amplify the vibrations, and then inside these inner hair cells
convert the vibrations and send them to the brain. And
that's simplistic, but that's kind of how your ear works.
But the team measured the hearing of three thousand newborns
(10:48):
using two different kinds of sound, and they looked at
these rapid clicks like those found in speech, and then
sustained tones like those found in music. And the results
showed that the left ear actually gave extra amplification for
tones like music. Well, the right ear did the same
thing for sounds like speech.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So The weird thing is that your auditory processing really
begins with the ear itself, and that's before your brain
gets involved. And if you want to be a better listener,
all you have to do is make sure you're using
the correct ear for whatever you're trying to hear.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
That is pretty neat, and I guess helpful when you're
at a cocktail party to know which side of your
face you need to really lean in with. I always
think about which side of the face I gotta lean
this side of my face and really hard here. It
actually reminds me of something else that we're a little
too quick to attribute to our brains, and that's the
all too familiar pain of brain freeze.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So I think I know where you're going with this,
and this is an amazing trick. I not only use
this all the time, but I've taught my kids this.
But in the words of Kanye, I'm gonna let you finish.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Thanks Kanye.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
All right, So, as I was saying, most people go
along with the brain freeze name and assume the pain
is in their brain, which is why you know we
instinctively grab our heads or start rubbing our temples when
we scarf down ice cream or drink something really cold,
but there actually aren't any pain receptors in the brain
at all. Instead, scientists think the pain is due to
these spasms brought on by the quick cooling of blood
(12:08):
vessels in the back of the throat. So the next
time you need to relieve that brain freeze, you can
drink something warm or just place your tongue against the
roof of your mouth and that helps warm up those
blood vessels and gets the brain freeze to go away.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Yeah, so that's the trick, I know, Just shove your
tongue against the roof of your mouth and that headache
just melts away. But this isn't something I'm going to
tell my kids. But there's also an other way to
lessen that pain, and that's to use swear words.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I love how we're talking about resolutions for twenty eighteen,
and a good one maybe to get to your kids
to swear more.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
Yeah, I mean they're already from New York, so right.
But this is a real thing. So, according to a
study at Kiel University, people who curse freely can endure
pain almost fifty percent longer than those who watch their language.
WHOA yeah, and the researchers had sixty four volunteers stick
their hand into a tub of freezing water for as
long as they could while repeating their favorite swear word.
Then they repeated the experiment, but they got to use
(13:00):
a benign word instead. And shockingly, the volunteers who swore
endured nearly two minutes of pain, while those who use
the benign words, so something like eggplant over and over
and over, they lasted just a minute and fifteen seconds.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
That is wild. Then that's a huge difference. So do
researchers know why cursing, you know, lessens the pain?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Yeah, they're not exactly sure, but their best guess is
that the swearing helps us downplay the threat in order
to overcome it. But the curious part is that the
curses kind of have to mean something. So, just like
your smile earlier, if you want to lessen your pain
by swearing, you have to limit your casual curses. And
as the researcher put it, swearing is emotional language, but
if you overuse it, it loses its emotional attachment.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Well all things in moderation, I guess, all right, Well,
before we get into more life acts, why don't we
take a quick break. You're listening to part Time Genius
(14:02):
and we're talking about some quirky ideas to make life a.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Little bit easier.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
So mego I mentioned this upfront that we would cover
some life hacks that may be a bit more ambitious
than using dental floss to slice up a cake or
some of the other really silly things you find if
you're looking online for life hacks.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
But I almost love the dumb and useless life hacks
as much as the good one. Oh yeah, Like there
was this one that said, uh, never forget where you
park your car in a parking lot, just tie a
helium balloon to the antenna.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
I'm not as good.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
I love that, like it just assumes that you always
have freshly filled helium balloons up of course, of course,
and there was this other one where where you turn
your hoodie around so the hoodie parts in front of
you and it's considered an accessible snack pocket. So the
picture I had this like fresh popcorn in the hood
in front of this coder so that he could just
burrow his face in the popcorn whenever he needed to bite.
(14:51):
And that was also he didn't have to move his hands.
It's so dumb.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I could totally see that being marketed toward coders. That's
pretty terrific. Although I will say that those kind of
life hacks do kind of give life hacks a bad name,
especially when you compare them to things that are really useful.
You know, like how hand sanitizer gets tree sap off
your hands, which is actually pretty useful when you're bringing
in Christmas trees or getting rid of them, and otherwise
you kind of have to sit there for like fifteen
(15:16):
minutes just your hands and scalding water.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I hate the stickiness of tree SAPs.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Stands sticky at all and much less tree sap, so
it drives me crazy. And then there was that trash
hack that you told me about that that I think
also fits the bill here.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Do you want to talk us through that one?
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Definitely? So this one is related to this zero waste
lifestyle movement that's really big right now, and it's basically
an effort to reduce the insane amount of trash that
we produce on an individual level. And to give you
an idea of why this might be necessary, consider the
fact that the average American produces about four point five
pounds of trash each day. Which is over sixteen hundred
pounds per year.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Ah, that is a ton of trash.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Actually literally, that is almost a ton of trash that
every single person produces.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
It's crazy crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
So obviously, with a population as large as ours, that
kind of trash production adds up fast. So here's a
clever way to reduce your role in the problem. Stuff
an entire year's worth of your garbage into a single
Mason jars. Yeah. I mean it might sound crazy, but
that's what Lauren Singer did, and it completely changed the
way she looks at trash.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, if Lauren Singer did it. Who is Lauren Singer.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
She's a graduate from NYU's Environmental Science program, and she
runs this blog about sustainability called Trash Is for Tossers.
And a few years ago, Singer got some pressed because
she realized that her interest in living sustainably hadn't extended
past the classroom. And as she put it, I've got
this quote here. One day I went home after class
and opened my fridge to make dinner, and I realized
that every single thing I had in there was packaged
(16:44):
and plastic. So she made this decision to go plastic
free and started making other changes in her life to
live a less wasteful life.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
And so that's where the mason jar comes in.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, that was kind of her way of keeping crack
of the small amounts of waste that she just couldn't
shake because like, even so she's sworn off buying, I
don't know, packaged goods and plastic and whatever, there's still
some random bits of paper and plastic that can't be
recycled or composted. So if you think about like fruit
often comes with these little stickers, or the bits of
plastic used to connect the price tag to your clothing. Yeah,
(17:15):
all of that's unavoidable waste. Then that goes into her
trustees sixteen ounce mason jar.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
But so she crams a full year's worth of garbage
into just one jar. How is that possible?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
She's actually even more efficient than that. So Singer claims
to have used the same jar for four years straight.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
No way.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, And if that's true, it means she's personally saved
over six thousand pounds of trash from heading to a landfill.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
I think she's hiding our trash. But that is incredible
if this is true. But it also sounds like one
of those resolutions that's too hard to achieve, So on
the blog or anywhere else that this singer have any
tips for people who are just starting to consider how
to cut down their trash.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Or yeah, she's got a whole process laid out, So
she suggests people start by getting to know their trash,
kind of like what she did by looking at her
fridge and examining that she had too much plastic packaging.
But once you've identified what kind of trash you produced
the most of, you can start looking for solutions and
ways to reduce it. So if you think about the
fact that, like you're throwing out a lot of wasted food,
(18:12):
you can start composting or maybe change the way you
grocery shop so you're doing it more often but buying
less each time, and that way you don't end up
with all this excess food you can't use. But then
the next step is to make smarter daily choices. And
this is just little stuff like bringing reusable bags or
coffee mugs with you when you're on about, or you know,
refusing plastic straws when you get offered them. But Singer's
(18:35):
biggest advice is to transition to a DIY approach. And
this is the one we'll all get held up on.
But it's things like making your own cleaning products using
apple cider vinegar, or baking soda or using citrus juice.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
For that.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Wow, I mean that is interesting.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
And for me making your own cleaning products, that does
feel like a big hurdle to getting one hundred percent there,
So I'm just not going to try it all. Honestly,
I do admire the commitment. One thing I do find
appealing about singers single jar approach is just how much
it limits her options because only allowing yourself such a
tiny space for trash, it really restricts your choices, you know,
(19:12):
for what you can consume.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Exactly Like you might look at a box of oreos
that look delicious, but you quickly realize how much less
work you have to do by eating an apple.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Yeah, and that's another tip for improving your lifestyle, and
that is to limit your options. It sounds counterintuitive, but
when it comes to choice, less is actually better, at
least according to Sena angar And. She's a psychologist at
Columbia University and she studies this paradox of choice. She
says that the greater choice can be a problem because
of the added strain it puts on your ability to
(19:42):
process information, you know, so think of all the time
you spend weighing your different options, not to mention the
fact that more choices also means a higher chance of
making a mistake and maybe even passing up on a
better option.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
So I mean, I like that idea, but what's alternative
just settling for good enough?
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Actually, yeah, that that is the solution.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
And Sheena conducted a few experiments to test her theories
about choice, and she found that people got more pleasure
from choosing a chocolate from an assortment of five than
when they choose from thirty.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
And when I think about that.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Specific example, I actually get it because it is kind
of stressful when you're trying to choose from that thing
of thirty and you're looking through the guid and you're like, oh,
it's just the one with peanut butter or not. But
the idea is that if you know, if someone didn't
make the absolute best choice, they'll still be happier in
the long run because they didn't suck all the fun
out of the experience through all this endless deliberation in
the process.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
That's that's very funny because I think about things like
video stores and one of the reasons I loved browsing
in them as a kid, or libraries too, is that
because you have this entire world and you have to
walk out with only one or two choices, Like, there's
so much pressure to pick well, but then there's the
fun in choosing that and deliberating. But I mean, I
guess it's paralyzing if that's what every decision is like.
(20:55):
If I always had to choose from three thousand chocolates
to pick from, i'd probably avoid chalk, right.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
But speaking of choice, there's one that I didn't even
know I had, and that's which direction your ceiling fan
spins in. I don't know how I've gone so long
without hearing about this, but apparently most ceiling fans have
a two settings for your blade rotation, and that's clockwise
or counterclockwise.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
I honestly don't think I've ever heard that either. So
does the direction actually make a difference?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Yeah, it does. So it turns out that we should
be changing our fans with the seasons, just like we
do with our clocks, and in the summer, ceiling fans
should spend counterclockwise to produce a breeze from the air
they force downwards. And then in the winter, the fans
should be switched to its clockwise setting and that way
the warm air that's risen to the ceiling gets pushed
down from the side of the room and more warm
air will be drawn upwards.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
That's pretty interesting here. Yeah, all right, so we've covered
a few tips for making home life a little more enjoyable,
and now I think we should think about work life.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
What do you say, Yeah, I'm for it. But before
we get started, let's take a quiz.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Okay, it's quiz time and we've got Lizzie Jacobs in
the studio today. Now, Lizzie's the producer of Mash Up Americans.
She also has an Emmy, a Peabody, and a couple
of bestsellers to her name from her work at story Core.
But that's not even her most impressive work. I think
you could say her biggest prize is being married to Mengo.
(22:26):
And she's here to play a very important life hacks quiz.
So welcome, Lizzie.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Thanks, I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Now, before we put you to the test, why don't
you take a minute to tell us about your new show,
Mash Up Americans.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Absolutely, so.
Speaker 5 (22:38):
The mash of Americans is a show hosted by two
first generation Americans, Amy and Rebecca, and they just like
to talk to and celebrate some of the most exciting
mashups in America today, and those are people who are
first generation American, who are in mixed cultural couples, are
from mixed cultural families, and just really about being at
(22:59):
the inner section of culture where that is a very
exciting place to be.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
So, Lizzia, I'm around your work a lot, so I
know a little bit about this. But do you want
to talk about some of the fun interviews you've been
doing recently.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, No, We've gotten to talk to a lot of
exciting people. One of the really fun interviews was with
Randall Park from Fresh off the Boat. He's just so
charming and he had this kimchi recipe that came to
him from I can't remember his name, but a Jewish
comedian and then he was like, but he's Korean, so
then he had to make it his own and all
(23:29):
this anyway, he was just like a totally lovely person.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
That was really fun. And then we had.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
DJ Rika on talking about twenty years of Basement bannga,
And that was super exciting to talk with the woman
who began it all about, you know, the whole twenty years.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, Basement Banger was this huge event in New York
City where all sorts of celebrities would come to do bangra.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
Yeah, and it was the longest running ever night like
nightclub night, twenty years. The only time they didn't open
was after a Hurricane Sandy because they literally there was
no electricity. But other than that they were open well,
you know, first Thursday of the month every month. And
even though I lived in New York for twelve years,
I never went to it because I'm totally a night life.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Low life, so I didn't.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
I never made it out, but I was excited to
talk about it afterwards.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
What an interesting project, and no surprise, because you're always
working on interesting projects. But I have to be honest,
the reason that we brought you on today is because
Mango says you shudder every time he says the.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Words life hacks. Is this true? And if so, why
do you hate them so much?
Speaker 5 (24:36):
I'm shuddering actively right now.
Speaker 4 (24:39):
I hate the word life hack, So I'm okay.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
With like hacking, right, computer hacking, fine, good has you know,
important to the world.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Iikia hacks.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
I like that because there's a lot of good things
you can do with those flat you know, flat pack
boxes of furniture to make. But life hacks just always
to me, seemed to reduce to some thing that some
young dude just figured out and thinks he figured out
even though grandma's have been doing it forever.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:07):
It's just like I actually saw there was a life
act the other day about how to make tacos from tortillas.
It's like life back, you can take tortillas and make
taco It's like, yes, you can, because that's what they're
made of.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Like it was just one of those things, you.
Speaker 5 (25:23):
Know, or life heck, you know, try to sipper your
laundry before you do it's like.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Yeah, your mom did that, you just.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Didn't no attention.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
So I find it to be kind of this like
columbusy or you know, sort of like dutification of culture
that bothers me.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
I don't know. Mango's got some pretty good ones.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
He had one the other day that if you feel
you're spending too much time sitting at your desk. If
you've eaten a banana that day, put it in your
chair and then you won't feel like sitting down.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I thought it was pretty good.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
It's true.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
I thought you're gonna see the bana, but it smells
so bad you had to get up and go to
the trash can at least once.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
But I don't know. Yeah, that could be.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
That's another like, Wow, you're good.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
I'm probably bitter about them because they should just have
a career as a life hack artist.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Well it's a good thing, because I think we're about
to put you to the test on these What what
game were we playing with Lizzie Mango.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
It's called real advice from history or nonsense life hacks.
We just made up.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Perfect all right.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
So we're going to read a statement to you, and
all you have to do is tell us whether it's
actual advice from history or a nonsense life hack we
just made up.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
You ready for these?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
I'm as ready as I'll ever be.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Okay, here is number one. If you need to take
a pie out of the oven, but don't have an oven,
mit handy, just use a metal dustpan to scoop up
the pie ten and keep it from over baking. It's
this real or something.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
We made up?
Speaker 4 (26:44):
I have to Can I ask a clarifying question here?
Speaker 3 (26:46):
No?
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Okay, so I'm just gonna answer. I'm gonna say that's real.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, it's real. This came from sixty years ago and
it works. But as household Hacker points out, you have
to use a metal dust pen and not a plastic one.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Right, because everyone has a metal dust pan, handy, and
everyone wants to be sticking their dustpan in the oven.
That is just you're the baked pie, right right? All right, Well,
she's one for one. Here we go number two. To
deal with shards of broken glass that you might not
see while sweeping, spread a little cracked corn on your
floor and invite a chicken or two into the house.
(27:23):
Within a half hour, a hungry hen will eat both
the seed and the glass, leaving a polished floor you
can walk barefoot on.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
No, that's a nonsense.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
That's nonsense.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Yeah, you know what, it's kind of not fair because
Lizzie's used to your bowl mango, so she was able
to read through that one.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Okay, two for two. Let's see how you do on
number three.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
To keep a beach umbrella standing upright in the sand,
Stack five to ten bagels on top of one another
on the ground, and insert the umbrella pole through the
bagels to give the base of the pole extra weight.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
That's a tough one. I'm gonna say it's.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Nonsense.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Yeah, it's nonsense. We made up.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
I was keeping my fingers crossed on it. Yes, it
is nonsense. Okay to left. Number four. If you're doing
work around the house, use an old potato as a
pin cushion to hold your nails, screws, and toe.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Oh totally, that's that's real.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yeah, it's real. Supposedly, an old potato is a handy
way to carry around your nails and screws without misplacing
them on the floor and stepping on them.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Yeah, and you always have an old potato.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
So perfect.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
All right, last one, let's see if you can get
a perfect score. Number five. An easy trick for slicing
tough bread with a dull knife is to heat up
a knife, so you just submerge it in boiling water,
then watch how easily it cuts through the loaf. Is
this real or something we made up?
Speaker 4 (28:50):
I'm going to give that a real That sounds real
to me.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yeah, it's real advice, and Gizmodo's actually recommended this trick
for slicing perfect cuts of cake as well.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Wow, so so mango. So I think Lizzie may have
aced this one.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
How'd she do?
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Yeah? She went far from five, which entitles her to
a certificate of genius, which we'll put up on the.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Fridge and I will use every day.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
I can't wait to share so many more life acts
with you, good listeners. I hope you'll all check out
mash Up Americans. But thanks again for joining us, Lizzie.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Thanks Will.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Welcome back to part time genius. Okay, so Will, what's
your idea for making the workplace a little more bearable?
Speaker 2 (29:39):
All right?
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Two words? Coffee nap.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Well you heard it here first, folks. Coffee and naps
will make work easier apparently.
Speaker 3 (29:49):
No, no, no, I didn't say coffee and naps. I
say coffee naps. And this sounds crazy because we tend
to think of caffeine as a way to stay awake,
But if you drink some coffee right before you take
a quick nap, you can actually maximize your brain's alertness.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
So I hate this idea already because I love both
coffee and napping, and I wouldn't want to mix those experiences.
I mean, to me, it's like when castandz on Seinfeld
tried to add sandwiches to and TV to his love
making for everything, and it's screwed everything up. But my
kid cousin actually mentioned this to me, and that all
his friends are actually doing in college. So I want
(30:24):
to know why.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Does this work?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
All?
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Right?
Speaker 3 (30:26):
So, the way caffeine works is by clogging up receptors
in your brain that are typically filled by a molecule
called a dentizine. The basically, brain activity produces a dentizine,
and when enough of it builds up, it fills the
gaps in the receptors and it creates this feeling of
tiredness or fatigue.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
So the caffeine takes the place of the adentizine, which
leaves you feeling wired rather than tired.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Right, But it doesn't muscle out the adentizine or anything
like that. Instead, what happens is the caffeine competes for
the empty spots in these receptors. Caffeine claims some of
the spots and a dyentizine gets the others, and that
that's why no amount of caffeine can stave off sleepiness completely.
I mean, eventually, the a dentizine filled receptors, they will
take their toll at some point.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Oh, that's interesting. It's almost like filling seats on a
roller coaster or something. But why are coffee apps the
way around that problem?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Well, so sleep is the body's way of clearing out
a dentizine, and generally it takes about twenty minutes for
caffeine to work its way through the bloodstream to the brain.
So if you down some coffee and then immediately take
a twenty minute nap, by the time the caffeine hits
your brain, it'll have less a dentizine to compete with.
Then when you wake up, you'll feel way more alert
than if you just had some coffee or just taken
(31:37):
a nap.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
That's pretty ingenious. So I'll have to fight off my
knee jerk reaction and try this sometime soon. So we've
established that coffee anaps can help you get through the day.
But what else have you got?
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Well, no matter what kind of job you have, there's
a good chance you wish it paid a little bit
more than it does, and we can't help you nab
a big raise or anything like that. But I do
have a tip for how to save some of the
money you've already made, and it's a pretty simple one.
Don't shop on your smartphone.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
But it's always with you and that's.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Part of the problem.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
So according to some research from doctor Ying Zoo of
the University of British Columbia, people take a different approach
to shopping on a touchscreen device than they do on
a laptop or a desktop. She breaks down the distinction
this way. She says, the touch screen has an easy
to use interface that puts you into an experiential thinking style.
When you're in an experiential thinking mode, you crave excitement,
(32:26):
a different kind of experience. When you're on the desktop
with all the work emails, that interface puts you in
a rational thinking style. While you're in a rational thinking style,
when you assess a product, you know you look for
something with functionality and specific uses.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
So we're more likely to make frivolous impulse buys on
a smartphone and practical purchases on the PC pretty much.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
And Zoo conducted an experiment where students were offered the
same collection of products on an iPod touch and then
on a desktop PC, and in both cases, students went
for the more indulgent items on the iPod and more
practical items on the PC.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Is that wild?
Speaker 1 (33:02):
That's crazy?
Speaker 3 (33:03):
But apparently there's just something fun about the touchscreen interface
that encourages us to opt for more hedonistic purchases like
movie tickets or pizza delivery. So if you're trying to
save some cash, delete that Amazon app and step away
from your smartphone.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
That's so funny, because like, we don't use things like
seamless on our desktop, but we do use them on
our phone and iPad at our house, and so we
probably order more from it. But I would say, like,
if the mere thought of, you know, separating yourself from
your iPhone gives you separation anxiety, actually have one last
money saving life act that I want to share as
an alternative, And it's really good because if you do
(33:38):
it right, you can turn one first class airplane ticket
into entire year's worth of free meals.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Wait, one ticket into an entire year's worth of free meals.
What is this black magic of which you speak?
Speaker 5 (33:50):
Mango?
Speaker 1 (33:51):
It's super simple and one I admire for its ingenuity,
but also think is a little shameful and will never
use because I'd be way too embarrassed about it.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
All right, so what is it here?
Speaker 1 (34:01):
You goes so first by yourself a fully refundable first
class ticket on your favorite airline, and the destination doesn't
matter at all because you're not actually going anywhere. Then,
once you have your ticket, proceed directly to the swankiest
VIP airport lounge you can find and stuff yourself with
free food to your heart's content. And then prior to
your departure you can probably guess what's coming. You exchange
(34:22):
your ticket for a later day and come back and
do the whole thing over and over.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
That is downright diabolical, mego, And also, there's no way
this could ever work, so it already has some genius.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
In China used this exact ploy a few years ago
and he was able to pull it off without a
hitch over three hundred times that year.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
No way three That is crazy, And the airline never
got suspicious of the same dude changing his itinerary hundreds
of times without ever taking a flight.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Well, obviously, like that's eventually why he stopped. But uh,
you want to know the best part, Like since he
was just exploiting a loophole and not actually breaking any rules.
They couldn't do anything but ask him pull it to stop.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Oh wow, And so did he stop?
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Yeah, I mean he recognized that the jig was finally off,
but he still had one last hand to play. He
returned his ticket for a full refine.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Oh my gosh, well played by this dude.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
And I know it's gonna be tough to top that one,
but I still have a few life hacks I'm itching
to try.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Well, now's your chance, because it's time to celebrate the
new year with the very first backed off of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
What luck.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
So you know, when a light bulb goes out, you
can shake it and hear a little rattle and you
know it's dead. I didn't realize there's a similar test
for batteries. Like if you drop a battery on the
floor and it bounces, it means it isn't fresh. Older
dead batteries bounce, while newer ones just thud.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Oh that's weird. That's pretty cool, all right.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Well, if you're in a storm and the electricity goes out,
do you know what works as a tiny candle?
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Crayola crayons.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Now your kids may not love this, but you can
actually burn them one by one to give yourself some light,
and according to life hacker, they'll last you fifteen to
thirty minutes each.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
So this is such a stupid life hack, but I
love it because I hate getting my handsticky or like
frosting on my face. But if you have to eat
a cupcake, take a knife and cut the bottom off
and then press it to the top to turn it
into a little cupcake sandwich.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
A great nickname for somebody. We need to decide who
to call little cupcake Sandwich. All right, Well, if you
hate crying while cutting onions, you can try this trick.
You just freeze them for fifteen minutes before you start slicing.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Oh that's awesome. So I've actually tried so many tricks
for cutting onions, from like wearing onion goggles to wedging
some bread in front of your like top lip, and
none of it works. So I can't wait to try this.
But if you're drilling something into a wall, holding an
open envelope under the strew actually catches all the wall particles,
so you don't have to sweep up after all.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
Right, Well, if you want to boil a lot of
hard boiled eggs, but you don't have a that's large enough.
You just put them in the oven in a muffin tin.
You bake them for thirty minutes at three hundred and
fifty degrees. You can actually do twenty four of these
at a time and not have to worry about water
boiling over.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Oh I like that. So I know you've got a
lot of sensitive documents on hand. And if you ever
need a shredder but don't have access to a shredder,
writer Lisa Kadaiyama suggests stuffing them into a stalking and
then running them in a washing machine. And no one
should be able to read your embarrassing love letters after.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Wow, you really got to want to get rid of
some letters to be willing to do that. That's good though, Well,
you know we both love dumb life hacks, and not
that your washing machine one was that was a very
reasonable one. But I've got one that may be the dumbest.
Then it comes from Gizmoto. So if you're tired of
fighting for a handrail to hold on to in the subway,
or you just don't want to deal with all those germs,
(37:50):
as you know, I don't really like dealing with them.
Just bring a toilet plunger on the subway with you.
All you have to do is you plunge it up
to the ceiling of the train and you hold onto
the handle. You don't have to fight anyone for space.
It's such a brilliant idea, and I have no idea
why I haven't thought of this.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
I love the idea of people commuting with their plungers
just because they're like scared of germs instead of I
don't know, like carrying hand sanitizer, no plunger. But I
do think you went today's edition.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
I thought so.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
I knew that one was gonna take the crown. Well
that's it for today's episode. Now, I know there are
so many life acts that we didn't mention today, so
we'd love to hear those from you guys. Feel free
to email us part Time Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com.
You can always call us on our twenty four to
seven fact hotline one eight four four pt Genius, or
hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Thanks so much for listening, Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works
and wouldn't be possible Without several brilliant people who do
the important things, we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy
mixy sound thing.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Jerry Roland does the exact producer thing.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Gabe Bluesier is our lead researcher, with support from the
research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams
and Eves.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Jeffcote gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
And if you really really like what you've heard.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Maybe you could leave a good review for us.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Do we forget Jason?
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Jason who
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