January 3, 2018 • 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 Lizzie Jacobs.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what will what's that go? So you know, I've
been obsessed with life hats 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
(00:23):
apparently the plant slowly absorbs the water over vacation. Or
if you want to turbocharge your sled, you can spray
some nonstick PAM under the sled. But my favorite thing
from it is how to immediately become more flexible. I
can't wait, and so, so what's the trick here? 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 windmill
(00:47):
them around all the way to your toes, you can
actually get closer to touching your toes. It's incredible. I
kind of thought this one was gonna involve PAM as well,
like under your feet, so you just slipped out into
a split. That would be great too, 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
(01:08):
in aither podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
(01:32):
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Man Guesh Ticketer and sitting behind that soundproof glass
running the audio equipment from a handcrafted Nordic tractor. That's impressive.
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 two thousand eighteen with a look at some
unusual ways to better your life in the year ahead.
(01:52):
So we're gonna check out some fun life hacks like
you know, how to beat an ice cream headache. Will
also get a bit more ambitious with ideas like how
to be a better sner, or how to cram a
year's worth of trash into a single Mason jar, and
of course, to start the second year of ptg off Right,
We've also got a ridiculous quiz lined up as well.
So who's playing today Mango. Yeah. Today, we're gonna have
a very special guest, my wife, Lizzie Jacobs. She's been
(02:15):
producing a fun new show for American public media called
Mash Up Americans. But she also hates whenever I talk
about life hacks, so we'll give her a little quiz
about him. 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
(02:38):
rejiggered the calendar and named January one the starting point
for each new year, and sees her name the first
month in honor of the two face 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 hoped to win
janice favor in the year ahead. Right, So fast forward
(03:01):
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 last for about a
month or so until our old habits kicked back and
and we're right back to where we started. Yeah, I
guess without the threat of you know, Janice looming over us,
(03:23):
maybe people's resolve isn't what it used to be. Then
is blaming on Janice? But everything on Janice, according to
the University of Scranton, where 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
(03:43):
reason for that low success rate is that we set
ourselves up for failure by choosing goals that we're already
bad achieving. 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. Right, And so the science actually shows
us that we get a sense of satisfaction just from
(04:03):
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 gonna lose weight this year,
and we predict that will 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 running three miles a day or whatever it doesn't
sound like fun anymore. Well, I'm glad you say that,
(04:24):
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 how Hirshfield, who's a marketing professor at
u c l A School of Management. So they're using
fm r I scans and they discovered 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. Wait, so are we actually thinking or seeing
our future selves as strangers? I mean, we kind of are, actually,
But but this is where things get interesting because there
(05:07):
was a different study and Hirshfield was looking at students
and having them examined digitally age pictures of themselves. An
amazingly test show that this helped the students develop more
empathy for their future selves. Isn't that kind of strange?
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 sells feel less like strangers,
(05:30):
we can actually use that motivation to better accomplish goals
in the present. That's so bizarre, And I thought you
were going to tell us just to make more manageable
goals like this, yere A'm gonna learn to make an
omelet or something, but you should, though, you should learn
to make someday. But you're saying if you want to
keep your New Year's resolution and just get in touch
with your future self, right, which I mean, I guess
it's actually pretty easy now with us like old define
(05:52):
an aging booth or whatever. Yeah, you can get super
old and seconds. 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 can just go play basketball,
and then it was Tuesday and you'd have to wait
until the next Monday. I know, the basketball is so
(06:13):
much more fun. Well, if if you want a better
shot at enjoying that workout, Actually, here's another hack, and
it's 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 there right.
So there's a study done earlier this year and researchers
(06:35):
from Ireland and Wales teamed up to see if a
group of recreational runners performed 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 run at
(06:57):
a given speech, So you can almost think of it
like all 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 minute runs,
(07:19):
using a different approach each time, some including smiling or
frowning continuously through the run. And I mean, it seems
like you're telegraphing this like that, the smiling runners outpaced
the frown ears. Well, not across the board. 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
(07:41):
game face you get on when every time we're about
to start a podcast, and that may be helped their
you know, determination to perform well. But the most economical
results came when the runners smiled, and so the group's
running economy was as much as two point seven eight
percent higher during the smiling runs than it was during
the others. That's crazy, So do we have any idea
(08:03):
why that is? 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
runners smiles became more unnatural the longer the session went on,
trying to run six minutes with a sincere smile on
(08:25):
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 from near
the end of the race and then use it in
thirty second burst. You know, so you don't wear out
that sincerity. I love that you can just pocket into
sincerity and then pull it small, InCor plan. There's nothing
(08:46):
more sincere than planning out your thirty second smiles. 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. So if people
(09:09):
don't look ridiculous enough doing karaoke, you know you might
you might want to add a fern to the mix.
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
(09:30):
that will actually help you land the high notes and
impress all the people who would have otherwise thought you foolish.
All right, well I will, I'll keep that one in mind. Mega. 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
(09:50):
are better with musical qualities like pitch or timber or loudness.
You know what. I've read a little bit about this,
and I might be mixing up the sides here, but
isn't the idea that the right ear is paired with
the left hemisphere of the brain, which is the side
that's better at processing verbal information. Right, Yeah, you're completely right.
So weirdly, the same kind of right ear preference shows
up another species. I was reading about this earlier, and
(10:12):
it's common for rats and dogs and also sea lions.
But one really cool thing I found out is that, uh,
even apart from its left brain connection, our right ear
is also physically better for hearing speech. So what do
you mean by that? So this comes from this joint
research effort from u c l A and the University
of Arizona. But when you hear a sound, the tiny
(10:34):
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 using two different
kinds of sound, and they looked at these rapid clicks
like those found in speech, and then sustained tones like
(10:55):
those found in music. And the results showed that the
left ear actually gave extra amplification for tones like music,
while the right ear did the same thing for sounds
like speech. 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
(11:16):
to hear. 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 pace got
lean this side of my face and really hard here.
But it actually reminds me of something else that that
we're a little too quick to attribute to our brains,
and that's the all too familiar pain of brain freeze.
So I think I know where you're going with this,
(11:38):
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.
Thanks Kanye. Al 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 or during
(11:59):
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 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
(12:19):
go away. 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 um, this isn't something
I'm gonna tell my kids. But there's also another way
to lesten that pain, and that's to use swear words.
I love how we're talking about resolutions for two thousand
and eighteen, and a good one maybe to get your
your kids to swear more. Yeah, I mean they're already
from New York's right, But this is a real thing.
(12:42):
So according to a study at Keel University, people who
curse freely can endure pain almost fifty longer than those
who watch their language. Yeah, and and the researchers had
sixty volunteers stick their hand into 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 a benign word instead, and shockingly, the volunteer,
(13:03):
as you swore, endured nearly two minutes of pain, while
those who use the benign words or something like eggplant
over and over and over, they lasted just a minute
and fifteen seconds. That is wild, and that's a huge difference.
So do researchers know why cursing, you know, lessons to pain? Yeah,
they're not exactly sure, but their best guess is that
the swearing helps us downplay the threat in order to
(13:25):
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 his emotional language. But if you
overuse it, it loses its emotional attachment. Well, all things
in moderation, I guess, all right, Well, before we get
(13:45):
into more life facts, why don't we take a quick
break if you're listening to Part Time Genius and we're
talking about some quirky ideas to make life a little
bit easier. So mago I mentioned this upfront that we
(14:07):
would cover some life as 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. But I
almost love the dumb and useless life hacks as much
as the good one. Like there was this one that said, uh,
never forget where you park your car in a parking lot,
just tie helium balloon to the antenna. That's good and
(14:29):
I love that, like it just assumes that you always
have freshly filled helium balloons up 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 borrow
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. I could totally see that being marketed
toward coders, that's pretty sure, 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 he's actually
pretty useful when you're bringing in Christmas trees or getting
(15:13):
rid of them, and otherwise you kind of have to
sit there for like fifteen minutes just hands in scalding water.
Hate the stickiness of tree sticks. Can't stand 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.
Do you want to talk us through that one? Definitely?
And so this one is related to this zero waste
(15:35):
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 six hundred
pounds per year. Ah, that is a ton of trash.
Actually literally, that is almost a ton of trash that
(15:56):
every single person produces. It's crazy. 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 in entire year's worth
of your garbage into a single Mason jar. Yeah. I
mean it might sound crazy, but that's what Lauren Singer did,
and it completely changed the way she looks at trash. Well,
(16:18):
if Lauren Singer did it. Who is Lauren Singer. She's
a graduate from n y USE Environmental Science program, and
she runs this blog about sustainability called Trash Is for Tossers.
And a few years ago, a Singer got impressed 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
(16:39):
and opened my fridge to make dinner, and I realized
that every single thing I had in there was packaged
in plastic. So she made this decision to go plastic
free and started making other changes in the life to
live a less wasteful life, and so that's where the
mason jar comes in. Yeah, that that was kind of
her way of keeping crack with the small amounts of
waste that she just couldn't shake because like, even though
(17:00):
she's sworn off buying I don't know, package goods and
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 deer clothing, all of that's unavoidable waste
and that goes into her trustees sixteen ounce mason jar. Wow.
(17:20):
But so she crams a full year's worth of garbage
into just one jar. How is that possible? She's actually
even more efficient than that. So Singer claims to have
used the same jar for four years straight way. Yeah,
and if that's true, it means she's personally saved over
six thousand pounds of trash from heading to a landfill.
I think she's hiding her trash somewhere, but that is
(17:40):
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 or yeah, she she's
got a whole process later 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
(18:02):
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, you can start
composting or or maybe change the way you grocery shops
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
(18:23):
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 biggest advice
is to transition to a d I Y approach, and
this is the one we'll all get held up on.
But it's things like making your own cleaning products using
(18:45):
apple cider vinegar, or baking soda or using citrus juice.
For that, Wow, I mean that is interesting. And for
me making your own cleaning products, that does feel like
a big hurdle to getting a percent there, So I'm
just not gonna try it all. But I mean, honestly,
I do admire the commitment. One thing I do find
appealing about singers single jar approaches just how much it
(19:06):
limits her options because only allowing yourself such a tiny
space for trash, it really restricts your choices, you know,
for what you can consume 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. 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
(19:28):
is actually better, at least according to Shena iron gar 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 process the 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
(19:49):
a higher chance of making a mistake and maybe even
passing up on a better option. So I mean, I
like the idea, but what's alternative just settling for good enough? Actually, yeah,
that that is the solution. And Sina 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.
(20:11):
And when I think about that specific example, 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 guide and you're like this one with peanut
butter or not. But that 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 you know,
they didn't suck all the fun out of the experience
through all this endless deliberation in the process. That's uh,
(20:33):
that's a really funny because I I think about things
like video stores and one of the reasons I love
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. But speaking of choice,
there's one that I didn't even know I had, and
that's which direction you're ceiling fans 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. I honestly
(21:17):
don't think I've ever heard that either. So does the
direction actually make a difference, 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 has been counterclockwise to produce
a breeze from the air they forced downwards, and then
in the winter the fans should be switched to its
clockwise setting, and that way the warm air that's risen
(21:38):
to the ceiling gets pushed down from the side of
the room and more warm air will be drawn upwards.
That's pretty interesting. 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.
What do you say? Yeah, and for it. But before
we get started, let's take a quiz. Okay, it's quiz
(22:07):
time and we've got Lizzie Jacobs in the studio today. Now,
Lizzie is the producer of Mash Up Americans. She also
has an Emmy, a Peabody, and a couple of best
sellers to her name from her work at Story Corps.
But that's not even her most impressive work. I think
you could say her biggest prize is being married to
Magda and she's here to play a very important life
(22:28):
hex quiz. So welcome, Lizzie. Thanks, I'm so glad to
be here. Now, before we put you to the test
that why, why don't you take a minute to tell
us about your new show, mash Up Americans. Yeah, absolutely so.
The Mash Up Americans is a show um hosted by
two first generation Americans, Amy and Rebecca, and they just
we like to talk and to and celebrate some of
the most exciting mash ups in America today, and those
(22:50):
are people who are first generation American, who are in
mixed uh cultural couples, are from mixed cultural families, and
just really about being at the inner ste action of
culture where that is a very exciting place to be. So, Lizzie,
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. Yeah, no,
We've We've gotten to talk to a lot of exciting people. Um.
(23:13):
One of the really fun interviews was with Randall park
Um from Fresh off the Boat. He's just so charming
and he had this kim chi recipe that came to
him from um, 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 out and
all this anyway, he was just like a totally lovely person.
That was really fun. And then we had Dj Rika
(23:35):
on talking about twenty years of Basement Bonga. Um, and
that was super exciting um to talk with the woman
who began at all about you know, the whole twenty years. Yeah,
Basement Bonga was this huge event in New York City
where all sorts of celebrities would come to do yeah,
and it was the longest running ever night like nightclub night,
(23:57):
twenty years. The only time they didn't open was after
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 every month. And even though
I lived in New York for twelve years, I never
went to it because I'm totally a nightlife low life,
so I didn't never made it out, but I was
excited to talk about it afterwards. That's pretty cool. What
(24:19):
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 shutter every time he says the words life hacks.
Is this true? And if so, why do you hate
them so much? I'm shuddering actively right now. I hate
(24:40):
the word life hack, So I'm okay with like hacking, right,
computer hacking, fine goods, you know, important to the world.
Uh ikia hacks. 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
(25:04):
figured out, even though grandma's have been doing it forever.
You know. It's just like I actually thought there was
a life hack the other day about how to make
tacos from tortillas. It's like, life hack, you can take
tortillas and make tacos. It's like, yes, you can, because
that's what they're made of. Like it was just a thing,
you know, or life heck, you know, try to separate
(25:26):
your laundry before you do it's like, yeah, your mom
did that, you just didn't attention. So I find it
to be kind of this like columbassy or you know,
sort of like dutification of culture that bothers me. I
don't know. Mango has got some pretty good ones. He
had one the other day that if you feel you're
spending too much time sitting at your desk, if you've
(25:46):
eaten a banana that day, put it in your chair
and then you won't feel like sitting down. I thought
it was pretty good. I thought you're gonna say the
banana it's smell so bad you had to get up
and go to the trash can at least once. But
now that that could be, and that's another like, Wow,
you're good. I probably I'm probably bitter about them because
I should just have a career as a life hack artist.
(26:07):
Well it's a good thing, because I think we're about
to put you to the test on these what what
what game are you playing with, Lizzie Mango. It's called
real advice from history or nonsense life hacks. We just
made up perfect all right. 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. You ready
for these? I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Okay,
(26:30):
here is number one. If you need to take a
pie out of the oven, but don't have an oven
mid handy, just use a metal dust pan to scoop
up the pineton and keep it from over baking. This
real or something we made up, I have to Can
I ask a clarifying question here? No? Okay, so I'm
just good answer. I'm gonna say that's real. Yeah, it's real.
(26:54):
This came from sixty years ago and it works. But
as household Hacker points out, you have to use a
metal dust pan and not a plastic one, right because
everyone has a metal dustpan, handy, and everyone wants to
be sticking their dust pan in the oven. That is
just pie right right? All right, Well, she's one for one.
Here we go number two. To deal with shards of
(27:16):
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. Within a half hour,
a hungry hen will eat both the seed and the glass,
leaving a polished floor you can walk barefoot on. No,
that's a nonsense, that's nonsense. Yeah, you know what, it's
(27:37):
kind of not fair because Lizzie's used to your bowl
man go to say this is she was able to
read through that one. Okay too for two. Let's see
how you do on number three to keep a beach
umbrella standing upright in the sand? Stack five the ten
bagels on top of one another on the ground and
insert the umbrella poll through the bagels to give the
base of the pole extra weight. That's a tough one. Um,
(28:01):
I'm gonna say it's nonsense. Yeah, it's nonsense. We made up.
I was keeping my fingers crossed. Yes, it is nonsense.
Okay too. Left. Number four. If you're doing work around
the house, use an old potato as a pincushion to
hold your nails, screws and totally. That's that's real. That's real. Supposedly,
(28:24):
an old potato is a handy way to carry around
your nails and screws without misplacing them on the floor
and stepping on them. Yeah, and you always have an
old potato, so perfect, 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
(28:47):
through the loaf. Is this real or something we made up?
I'm gonna give that a real That sounds real to me. Yeah,
it's real. Advice and gives moto is actually recommended. This
trick for slicing perfect cuts of cake as well. Oh
so so mango. I think Lizzie may have as this one.
How did she do? Yeah, she went five for five,
which entitles her to a certificate of genius, which we'll
put up on the fridge and I will use every day.
(29:13):
I can't wait to share so many more lifects with
the listeners. I hope you'll all check out mash Up Americans.
But thanks again for joining us, Lizzie. Welcome back to
(29:34):
part time Genius. Okay, so we'll what's your idea for
making the workplace a little more bearable? All right? Two words?
Coffee naps. Well you heard it here first, folks. Coffee
and naps will make work easier apparently. 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
(29:57):
drink some coffee right before you take a quick nap,
you can actually maximize your brains alertness. 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 Costanza on Seinfeld tried to
add sandwiches to and TV to his love making and
it screwed everything up. But my kid cousin actually mentioned
(30:20):
this to me, and uh that all his friends are
actually doing in college. So I wonder why is this
work all? Right? So, the way caffeine works is by
clogging up receptors in your brain that are typically filled
by a molecule called a denazine. The basically, brain activity
produces a denazine and when enough of it builds up,
it fills the gaps in the receptors and it creates
this feeling of tiredness or fatigue. So the caffeine takes
(30:44):
the place of the adnazine, which leaves your feeling wired
rather than tired. Right, But it doesn't muscle out the
adnazine or anything like that. Instead, what happens is the
caffeine competes for the empty spots in these receptors. Keffne
claims some of the spots and a denazine gets the others,
and that why no amount of caffeine can stave off
sleepiness completely. And eventually the adnazine filled receptors they will
(31:07):
take their toll at some point. That's interesting it's almost
like filling seats on a roller coaster or something. But
why are coffee naps the way around that problem? Well,
so sleep is the body's way of clearing out a denazine,
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,
(31:29):
it'll have less a denazine to compete with. Then when
you wake up, you'll feel way more alert than if
you just had some coffee or just taken a nap.
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 naps can help you get through the day.
But what else have you got? Well, no matter what
kind of job you have, there's a good chance you
(31:50):
wish it paid a little bit more than it does.
And we can't help you na have a big rays
or anything like that. But I do have a tip
for how to save some of the money you've already made.
It's a pretty simple one. Don't shop on your smartphone
but it's always with you and that's part of the problem. So,
according to some research from Dr Yean Zoo of the
University of British Columbia, people take a different approach to
(32:12):
shopping on a touch screen 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,
a different kind of experience. When you're on the desktop
with all the work emails, that interface puts you in
(32:32):
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. So we're more likely
to make frivlesus impulse buys on a smartphone and practical
purchases on the PC pretty much. And and Zoo conducted
an experiment where students were offered the same collection of
products on an iPod touch and then on a desktop PC,
(32:55):
and in both cases, students went for the more indulgent
items on the iPod and more practical items on the PC.
Isn't that wild? That's crazy? But apparently there's just something
fun about the touch screen 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. That's so funny,
(33:18):
because like, we don't use things like seamless on our desktop,
but we do use them on our phone. And I've
had at ours 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 it right, you can turn one
(33:40):
first class airplane ticket into an entire year's worth of
free meals, one ticket into an entire year's worth of
free meals, or this black magic of which you see mango.
It's super simple and one I admire for its ingenuity,
but also think it's a little shameful and we'll never
use because I'd be way too embarrassed about it. Right,
(34:00):
So what is it here? You goes, So, first, buy
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 v I p airport lounge
you can find and stuff yourself with free food to
your heart's content, and then prior to your departure you
(34:20):
can probably guess what's coming. You exchange your ticket for
a later day and come back and do the whole
thing over and over. That is downright diabolical. And also
there's no way this could ever work, so it already
has some genius 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.
No way three That is crazy. And the airline never
(34:43):
got suspicious of the same dude changing his itinerary hundreds
of times without ever taking a flight. 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 and pull it to stop. Wow,
And so so did he stop? Yeah? I mean he
(35:03):
recognized that the jig was finally up, but he still
had one less hand to play. He returned his ticket
for a full refund. Oh my gosh, well played by
this dude. 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. Well, now's your chance, because
it's time to celebrate the new year with the very
first fact off of two. What luck. So you know,
(35:31):
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 bounced, while
newer ones just thud. Oh that's weird. That's pretty cool,
all right. Well, if you're in a storm and the
electricity goes out, do you know what works as a
(35:53):
tiny candle? Crayola crayons. Now, your 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. So this
is such a stupid life hack, but I love it
because I hate getting my hand sticky or like frosting
(36:13):
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. You're a great nickname for somebody. We
need to decide who to call little cupcake Sandwich. Alright, Well,
if you hate crying while cutting onions, you can try
this trick. You just freeze them for fifteen minutes before
(36:35):
you start slicing. 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 screw actually
catches all the wall particles, so you don't have to
sweep up after all. Right, Well, if you want to
(36:57):
boil a lot of hard boiled eggs but you don't
have a hot that's large enough, you just put them
in the oven in a muffin tin. You bake them
for thirty minutes at three and fifty degrees. You can
actually do twenty four of these at a time and
not have to worry about water boiling over. Oh I
like that. So I know you've got a lot of
sensitive documents on hand. And if you ever need a
(37:18):
shredder but don't have access to a shredder, writer Lisa
kada Yama 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 Wow,
you've 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
not that you're washing machine one was that was a
(37:40):
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 onto in
the subway, or you just don't want to deal with
all those germs, 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
(38:01):
anyone for space. It's such a brilliant idea, and I
have no idea why I haven't thought of this. 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 win today's edition. I thought so. I knew that
one was gonna take the crown. Well that's it for
(38:22):
today's episode. Now, I know there are so many life
facts 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 how stuff Works dot com. You
can always call us on our seven fact hotline one
eight four four pt Genius, or hit us up on
Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks again
(38:55):
for listening. 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.
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the
theme song and does the MIXI mixy sound thing. Jerry
Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay Blues Yer is
our lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including
Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff
(39:18):
Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
and if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave a good review for us. Did we
forget Jason? Jason who
Guess what will what's that go? So you know, I've
been obsessed with life hats 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
(00:23):
apparently the plant slowly absorbs the water over vacation. Or
if you want to turbocharge your sled, you can spray
some nonstick PAM under the sled. But my favorite thing
from it is how to immediately become more flexible. I
can't wait, and so, so what's the trick here? 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 windmill
(00:47):
them around all the way to your toes, you can
actually get closer to touching your toes. It's incredible. I
kind of thought this one was gonna involve PAM as well,
like under your feet, so you just slipped out into
a split. That would be great too, 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
(01:08):
in aither podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
(01:32):
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Man Guesh Ticketer and sitting behind that soundproof glass
running the audio equipment from a handcrafted Nordic tractor. That's impressive.
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 two thousand eighteen with a look at some
unusual ways to better your life in the year ahead.
(01:52):
So we're gonna check out some fun life hacks like
you know, how to beat an ice cream headache. Will
also get a bit more ambitious with ideas like how
to be a better sner, or how to cram a
year's worth of trash into a single Mason jar, and
of course, to start the second year of ptg off Right,
We've also got a ridiculous quiz lined up as well.
So who's playing today Mango. Yeah. Today, we're gonna have
a very special guest, my wife, Lizzie Jacobs. She's been
(02:15):
producing a fun new show for American public media called
Mash Up Americans. But she also hates whenever I talk
about life hacks, so we'll give her a little quiz
about him. 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
(02:38):
rejiggered the calendar and named January one the starting point
for each new year, and sees her name the first
month in honor of the two face 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 hoped to win
janice favor in the year ahead. Right, So fast forward
(03:01):
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 last for about a
month or so until our old habits kicked back and
and we're right back to where we started. Yeah, I
guess without the threat of you know, Janice looming over us,
(03:23):
maybe people's resolve isn't what it used to be. Then
is blaming on Janice? But everything on Janice, according to
the University of Scranton, where 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
(03:43):
reason for that low success rate is that we set
ourselves up for failure by choosing goals that we're already
bad achieving. 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. Right, And so the science actually shows
us that we get a sense of satisfaction just from
(04:03):
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 gonna lose weight this year,
and we predict that will 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 running three miles a day or whatever it doesn't
sound like fun anymore. Well, I'm glad you say that,
(04:24):
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 how Hirshfield, who's a marketing professor at
u c l A School of Management. So they're using
fm r I scans and they discovered 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. Wait, so are we actually thinking or seeing
our future selves as strangers? I mean, we kind of are, actually,
But but this is where things get interesting because there
(05:07):
was a different study and Hirshfield was looking at students
and having them examined digitally age pictures of themselves. An
amazingly test show that this helped the students develop more
empathy for their future selves. Isn't that kind of strange?
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 sells feel less like strangers,
(05:30):
we can actually use that motivation to better accomplish goals
in the present. That's so bizarre, And I thought you
were going to tell us just to make more manageable
goals like this, yere A'm gonna learn to make an
omelet or something, but you should, though, you should learn
to make someday. But you're saying if you want to
keep your New Year's resolution and just get in touch
with your future self, right, which I mean, I guess
it's actually pretty easy now with us like old define
(05:52):
an aging booth or whatever. Yeah, you can get super
old and seconds. 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 can just go play basketball,
and then it was Tuesday and you'd have to wait
until the next Monday. I know, the basketball is so
(06:13):
much more fun. Well, if if you want a better
shot at enjoying that workout, Actually, here's another hack, and
it's 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 there right.
So there's a study done earlier this year and researchers
(06:35):
from Ireland and Wales teamed up to see if a
group of recreational runners performed 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 run at
(06:57):
a given speech, So you can almost think of it
like all 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 minute runs,
(07:19):
using a different approach each time, some including smiling or
frowning continuously through the run. And I mean, it seems
like you're telegraphing this like that, the smiling runners outpaced
the frown ears. Well, not across the board. 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
(07:41):
game face you get on when every time we're about
to start a podcast, and that may be helped their
you know, determination to perform well. But the most economical
results came when the runners smiled, and so the group's
running economy was as much as two point seven eight
percent higher during the smiling runs than it was during
the others. That's crazy, So do we have any idea
(08:03):
why that is? 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
runners smiles became more unnatural the longer the session went on,
trying to run six minutes with a sincere smile on
(08:25):
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 from near
the end of the race and then use it in
thirty second burst. You know, so you don't wear out
that sincerity. I love that you can just pocket into
sincerity and then pull it small, InCor plan. There's nothing
(08:46):
more sincere than planning out your thirty second smiles. 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. So if people
(09:09):
don't look ridiculous enough doing karaoke, you know you might
you might want to add a fern to the mix.
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
(09:30):
that will actually help you land the high notes and
impress all the people who would have otherwise thought you foolish.
All right, well I will, I'll keep that one in mind. Mega. 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
(09:50):
are better with musical qualities like pitch or timber or loudness.
You know what. I've read a little bit about this,
and I might be mixing up the sides here, but
isn't the idea that the right ear is paired with
the left hemisphere of the brain, which is the side
that's better at processing verbal information. Right, Yeah, you're completely right.
So weirdly, the same kind of right ear preference shows
up another species. I was reading about this earlier, and
(10:12):
it's common for rats and dogs and also sea lions.
But one really cool thing I found out is that, uh,
even apart from its left brain connection, our right ear
is also physically better for hearing speech. So what do
you mean by that? So this comes from this joint
research effort from u c l A and the University
of Arizona. But when you hear a sound, the tiny
(10:34):
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 using two different
kinds of sound, and they looked at these rapid clicks
like those found in speech, and then sustained tones like
(10:55):
those found in music. And the results showed that the
left ear actually gave extra amplification for tones like music,
while the right ear did the same thing for sounds
like speech. 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
(11:16):
to hear. 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 pace got
lean this side of my face and really hard here.
But it actually reminds me of something else that that
we're a little too quick to attribute to our brains,
and that's the all too familiar pain of brain freeze.
So I think I know where you're going with this,
(11:38):
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.
Thanks Kanye. Al 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 or during
(11:59):
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 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
(12:19):
go away. 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 um, this isn't something
I'm gonna tell my kids. But there's also another way
to lesten that pain, and that's to use swear words.
I love how we're talking about resolutions for two thousand
and eighteen, and a good one maybe to get your
your kids to swear more. Yeah, I mean they're already
from New York's right, But this is a real thing.
(12:42):
So according to a study at Keel University, people who
curse freely can endure pain almost fifty longer than those
who watch their language. Yeah, and and the researchers had
sixty volunteers stick their hand into 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 a benign word instead, and shockingly, the volunteer,
(13:03):
as you swore, endured nearly two minutes of pain, while
those who use the benign words or something like eggplant
over and over and over, they lasted just a minute
and fifteen seconds. That is wild, and that's a huge difference.
So do researchers know why cursing, you know, lessons to pain? Yeah,
they're not exactly sure, but their best guess is that
the swearing helps us downplay the threat in order to
(13:25):
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 his emotional language. But if you
overuse it, it loses its emotional attachment. Well, all things
in moderation, I guess, all right, Well, before we get
(13:45):
into more life facts, why don't we take a quick
break if you're listening to Part Time Genius and we're
talking about some quirky ideas to make life a little
bit easier. So mago I mentioned this upfront that we
(14:07):
would cover some life as 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. But I
almost love the dumb and useless life hacks as much
as the good one. Like there was this one that said, uh,
never forget where you park your car in a parking lot,
just tie helium balloon to the antenna. That's good and
(14:29):
I love that, like it just assumes that you always
have freshly filled helium balloons up 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 borrow
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. I could totally see that being marketed
toward coders, that's pretty sure, 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 he's actually
pretty useful when you're bringing in Christmas trees or getting
(15:13):
rid of them, and otherwise you kind of have to
sit there for like fifteen minutes just hands in scalding water.
Hate the stickiness of tree sticks. Can't stand 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.
Do you want to talk us through that one? Definitely?
And so this one is related to this zero waste
(15:35):
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 six hundred
pounds per year. Ah, that is a ton of trash.
Actually literally, that is almost a ton of trash that
(15:56):
every single person produces. It's crazy. 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 in entire year's worth
of your garbage into a single Mason jar. Yeah. I
mean it might sound crazy, but that's what Lauren Singer did,
and it completely changed the way she looks at trash. Well,
(16:18):
if Lauren Singer did it. Who is Lauren Singer. She's
a graduate from n y USE Environmental Science program, and
she runs this blog about sustainability called Trash Is for Tossers.
And a few years ago, a Singer got impressed 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
(16:39):
and opened my fridge to make dinner, and I realized
that every single thing I had in there was packaged
in plastic. So she made this decision to go plastic
free and started making other changes in the life to
live a less wasteful life, and so that's where the
mason jar comes in. Yeah, that that was kind of
her way of keeping crack with the small amounts of
waste that she just couldn't shake because like, even though
(17:00):
she's sworn off buying I don't know, package goods and
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 deer clothing, all of that's unavoidable waste
and that goes into her trustees sixteen ounce mason jar. Wow.
(17:20):
But so she crams a full year's worth of garbage
into just one jar. How is that possible? She's actually
even more efficient than that. So Singer claims to have
used the same jar for four years straight way. Yeah,
and if that's true, it means she's personally saved over
six thousand pounds of trash from heading to a landfill.
I think she's hiding her trash somewhere, but that is
(17:40):
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 or yeah, she she's
got a whole process later 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
(18:02):
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, you can start
composting or or maybe change the way you grocery shops
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
(18:23):
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 biggest advice
is to transition to a d I Y approach, and
this is the one we'll all get held up on.
But it's things like making your own cleaning products using
(18:45):
apple cider vinegar, or baking soda or using citrus juice.
For that, Wow, I mean that is interesting. And for
me making your own cleaning products, that does feel like
a big hurdle to getting a percent there, So I'm
just not gonna try it all. But I mean, honestly,
I do admire the commitment. One thing I do find
appealing about singers single jar approaches just how much it
(19:06):
limits her options because only allowing yourself such a tiny
space for trash, it really restricts your choices, you know,
for what you can consume 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. 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
(19:28):
is actually better, at least according to Shena iron gar 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 process the 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
(19:49):
a higher chance of making a mistake and maybe even
passing up on a better option. So I mean, I
like the idea, but what's alternative just settling for good enough? Actually, yeah,
that that is the solution. And Sina 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.
(20:11):
And when I think about that specific example, 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 guide and you're like this one with peanut
butter or not. But that 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 you know,
they didn't suck all the fun out of the experience
through all this endless deliberation in the process. That's uh,
(20:33):
that's a really funny because I I think about things
like video stores and one of the reasons I love
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. But speaking of choice,
there's one that I didn't even know I had, and
that's which direction you're ceiling fans 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. I honestly
(21:17):
don't think I've ever heard that either. So does the
direction actually make a difference, 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 has been counterclockwise to produce
a breeze from the air they forced downwards, and then
in the winter the fans should be switched to its
clockwise setting, and that way the warm air that's risen
(21:38):
to the ceiling gets pushed down from the side of
the room and more warm air will be drawn upwards.
That's pretty interesting. 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.
What do you say? Yeah, and for it. But before
we get started, let's take a quiz. Okay, it's quiz
(22:07):
time and we've got Lizzie Jacobs in the studio today. Now,
Lizzie is the producer of Mash Up Americans. She also
has an Emmy, a Peabody, and a couple of best
sellers to her name from her work at Story Corps.
But that's not even her most impressive work. I think
you could say her biggest prize is being married to
Magda and she's here to play a very important life
(22:28):
hex quiz. So welcome, Lizzie. Thanks, I'm so glad to
be here. Now, before we put you to the test
that why, why don't you take a minute to tell
us about your new show, mash Up Americans. Yeah, absolutely so.
The Mash Up Americans is a show um hosted by
two first generation Americans, Amy and Rebecca, and they just
we like to talk and to and celebrate some of
the most exciting mash ups in America today, and those
(22:50):
are people who are first generation American, who are in
mixed uh cultural couples, are from mixed cultural families, and
just really about being at the inner ste action of
culture where that is a very exciting place to be. So, Lizzie,
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. Yeah, no,
We've We've gotten to talk to a lot of exciting people. Um.
(23:13):
One of the really fun interviews was with Randall park
Um from Fresh off the Boat. He's just so charming
and he had this kim chi recipe that came to
him from um, 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 out and
all this anyway, he was just like a totally lovely person.
That was really fun. And then we had Dj Rika
(23:35):
on talking about twenty years of Basement Bonga. Um, and
that was super exciting um to talk with the woman
who began at all about you know, the whole twenty years. Yeah,
Basement Bonga was this huge event in New York City
where all sorts of celebrities would come to do yeah,
and it was the longest running ever night like nightclub night,
(23:57):
twenty years. The only time they didn't open was after
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 every month. And even though
I lived in New York for twelve years, I never
went to it because I'm totally a nightlife low life,
so I didn't never made it out, but I was
excited to talk about it afterwards. That's pretty cool. What
(24:19):
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 shutter every time he says the words life hacks.
Is this true? And if so, why do you hate
them so much? I'm shuddering actively right now. I hate
(24:40):
the word life hack, So I'm okay with like hacking, right,
computer hacking, fine goods, you know, important to the world.
Uh ikia hacks. 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
(25:04):
figured out, even though grandma's have been doing it forever.
You know. It's just like I actually thought there was
a life hack the other day about how to make
tacos from tortillas. It's like, life hack, you can take
tortillas and make tacos. It's like, yes, you can, because
that's what they're made of. Like it was just a thing,
you know, or life heck, you know, try to separate
(25:26):
your laundry before you do it's like, yeah, your mom
did that, you just didn't attention. So I find it
to be kind of this like columbassy or you know,
sort of like dutification of culture that bothers me. I
don't know. Mango has got some pretty good ones. He
had one the other day that if you feel you're
spending too much time sitting at your desk, if you've
(25:46):
eaten a banana that day, put it in your chair
and then you won't feel like sitting down. I thought
it was pretty good. I thought you're gonna say the
banana it's smell so bad you had to get up
and go to the trash can at least once. But
now that that could be, and that's another like, Wow,
you're good. I probably I'm probably bitter about them because
I should just have a career as a life hack artist.
(26:07):
Well it's a good thing, because I think we're about
to put you to the test on these what what
what game are you playing with, Lizzie Mango. It's called
real advice from history or nonsense life hacks. We just
made up perfect all right. 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. You ready
for these? I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Okay,
(26:30):
here is number one. If you need to take a
pie out of the oven, but don't have an oven
mid handy, just use a metal dust pan to scoop
up the pineton and keep it from over baking. This
real or something we made up, I have to Can
I ask a clarifying question here? No? Okay, so I'm
just good answer. I'm gonna say that's real. Yeah, it's real.
(26:54):
This came from sixty years ago and it works. But
as household Hacker points out, you have to use a
metal dust pan and not a plastic one, right because
everyone has a metal dustpan, handy, and everyone wants to
be sticking their dust pan in the oven. That is
just pie right right? All right, Well, she's one for one.
Here we go number two. To deal with shards of
(27:16):
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. Within a half hour,
a hungry hen will eat both the seed and the glass,
leaving a polished floor you can walk barefoot on. No,
that's a nonsense, that's nonsense. Yeah, you know what, it's
(27:37):
kind of not fair because Lizzie's used to your bowl
man go to say this is she was able to
read through that one. Okay too for two. Let's see
how you do on number three to keep a beach
umbrella standing upright in the sand? Stack five the ten
bagels on top of one another on the ground and
insert the umbrella poll through the bagels to give the
base of the pole extra weight. That's a tough one. Um,
(28:01):
I'm gonna say it's nonsense. Yeah, it's nonsense. We made up.
I was keeping my fingers crossed. Yes, it is nonsense.
Okay too. Left. Number four. If you're doing work around
the house, use an old potato as a pincushion to
hold your nails, screws and totally. That's that's real. That's real. Supposedly,
(28:24):
an old potato is a handy way to carry around
your nails and screws without misplacing them on the floor
and stepping on them. Yeah, and you always have an
old potato, so perfect, 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
(28:47):
through the loaf. Is this real or something we made up?
I'm gonna give that a real That sounds real to me. Yeah,
it's real. Advice and gives moto is actually recommended. This
trick for slicing perfect cuts of cake as well. Oh
so so mango. I think Lizzie may have as this one.
How did she do? Yeah, she went five for five,
which entitles her to a certificate of genius, which we'll
put up on the fridge and I will use every day.
(29:13):
I can't wait to share so many more lifects with
the listeners. I hope you'll all check out mash Up Americans.
But thanks again for joining us, Lizzie. Welcome back to
(29:34):
part time Genius. Okay, so we'll what's your idea for
making the workplace a little more bearable? All right? Two words?
Coffee naps. Well you heard it here first, folks. Coffee
and naps will make work easier apparently. 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
(29:57):
drink some coffee right before you take a quick nap,
you can actually maximize your brains alertness. 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 Costanza on Seinfeld tried to
add sandwiches to and TV to his love making and
it screwed everything up. But my kid cousin actually mentioned
(30:20):
this to me, and uh that all his friends are
actually doing in college. So I wonder why is this
work all? Right? So, the way caffeine works is by
clogging up receptors in your brain that are typically filled
by a molecule called a denazine. The basically, brain activity
produces a denazine and when enough of it builds up,
it fills the gaps in the receptors and it creates
this feeling of tiredness or fatigue. So the caffeine takes
(30:44):
the place of the adnazine, which leaves your feeling wired
rather than tired. Right, But it doesn't muscle out the
adnazine or anything like that. Instead, what happens is the
caffeine competes for the empty spots in these receptors. Keffne
claims some of the spots and a denazine gets the others,
and that why no amount of caffeine can stave off
sleepiness completely. And eventually the adnazine filled receptors they will
(31:07):
take their toll at some point. That's interesting it's almost
like filling seats on a roller coaster or something. But
why are coffee naps the way around that problem? Well,
so sleep is the body's way of clearing out a denazine,
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,
(31:29):
it'll have less a denazine to compete with. Then when
you wake up, you'll feel way more alert than if
you just had some coffee or just taken a nap.
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 naps can help you get through the day.
But what else have you got? Well, no matter what
kind of job you have, there's a good chance you
(31:50):
wish it paid a little bit more than it does.
And we can't help you na have a big rays
or anything like that. But I do have a tip
for how to save some of the money you've already made.
It's a pretty simple one. Don't shop on your smartphone
but it's always with you and that's part of the problem. So,
according to some research from Dr Yean Zoo of the
University of British Columbia, people take a different approach to
(32:12):
shopping on a touch screen 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,
a different kind of experience. When you're on the desktop
with all the work emails, that interface puts you in
(32:32):
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. So we're more likely
to make frivlesus impulse buys on a smartphone and practical
purchases on the PC pretty much. And and Zoo conducted
an experiment where students were offered the same collection of
products on an iPod touch and then on a desktop PC,
(32:55):
and in both cases, students went for the more indulgent
items on the iPod and more practical items on the PC.
Isn't that wild? That's crazy? But apparently there's just something
fun about the touch screen 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. That's so funny,
(33:18):
because like, we don't use things like seamless on our desktop,
but we do use them on our phone. And I've
had at ours 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 it right, you can turn one
(33:40):
first class airplane ticket into an entire year's worth of
free meals, one ticket into an entire year's worth of
free meals, or this black magic of which you see mango.
It's super simple and one I admire for its ingenuity,
but also think it's a little shameful and we'll never
use because I'd be way too embarrassed about it. Right,
(34:00):
So what is it here? You goes, So, first, buy
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 v I p airport lounge
you can find and stuff yourself with free food to
your heart's content, and then prior to your departure you
(34:20):
can probably guess what's coming. You exchange your ticket for
a later day and come back and do the whole
thing over and over. That is downright diabolical. And also
there's no way this could ever work, so it already
has some genius 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.
No way three That is crazy. And the airline never
(34:43):
got suspicious of the same dude changing his itinerary hundreds
of times without ever taking a flight. 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 and pull it to stop. Wow,
And so so did he stop? Yeah? I mean he
(35:03):
recognized that the jig was finally up, but he still
had one less hand to play. He returned his ticket
for a full refund. Oh my gosh, well played by
this dude. 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. Well, now's your chance, because
it's time to celebrate the new year with the very
first fact off of two. What luck. So you know,
(35:31):
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 bounced, while
newer ones just thud. Oh that's weird. That's pretty cool,
all right. Well, if you're in a storm and the
electricity goes out, do you know what works as a
(35:53):
tiny candle? Crayola crayons. Now, your 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. So this
is such a stupid life hack, but I love it
because I hate getting my hand sticky or like frosting
(36:13):
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. You're a great nickname for somebody. We
need to decide who to call little cupcake Sandwich. Alright, Well,
if you hate crying while cutting onions, you can try
this trick. You just freeze them for fifteen minutes before
(36:35):
you start slicing. 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 screw actually
catches all the wall particles, so you don't have to
sweep up after all. Right, Well, if you want to
(36:57):
boil a lot of hard boiled eggs but you don't
have a hot that's large enough, you just put them
in the oven in a muffin tin. You bake them
for thirty minutes at three and fifty degrees. You can
actually do twenty four of these at a time and
not have to worry about water boiling over. Oh I
like that. So I know you've got a lot of
sensitive documents on hand. And if you ever need a
(37:18):
shredder but don't have access to a shredder, writer Lisa
kada Yama 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 Wow,
you've 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
not that you're washing machine one was that was a
(37:40):
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 onto in
the subway, or you just don't want to deal with
all those germs, 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
(38:01):
anyone for space. It's such a brilliant idea, and I
have no idea why I haven't thought of this. 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 win today's edition. I thought so. I knew that
one was gonna take the crown. Well that's it for
(38:22):
today's episode. Now, I know there are so many life
facts 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 how stuff Works dot com. You
can always call us on our seven fact hotline one
eight four four pt Genius, or hit us up on
Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks again
(38:55):
for listening. 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.
Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the
theme song and does the MIXI mixy sound thing. Jerry
Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay Blues Yer is
our lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including
Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff
(39:18):
Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
and if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.