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Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff. Mom never told you from house to books,

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Speaker 1: not color. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Caroline.

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Speaker 1: Then I'm Kristin Kristen. A couple of years ago, I

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Speaker 1: used to be obsessed with the qv show House until

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Speaker 1: I realized that like every episode the same, but it

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Speaker 1: is very entertaining. And and they had this great episode

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Speaker 1: about this person who had this crazy, like beyond photographic memory,

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Speaker 1: this person who could just like bring up any memory

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Speaker 1: from any day that you gave them in the past

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Speaker 1: and tell you what happened. Um, they ended up like

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Speaker 1: quote unquote curing that person on the show. And so

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Speaker 1: when you showed me this article from Wired about this woman,

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Speaker 1: Jill Price, it reminded me, Hello a memory. It reminded

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Speaker 1: me of that House episode. Jill Price has hyper thymestic syndrome.

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Speaker 1: Hyperthymestic syndrome is essentially Greek for a really really, really

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Speaker 1: really great memory. Uh. She was this woman who was

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Speaker 1: in the news a lot a few years ago when

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Speaker 1: she wrote an autobiography about this condition. Um and all

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Speaker 1: of us started out in two thousand and six when

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Speaker 1: some UC Irvine neuroscientists published an article about her called

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Speaker 1: a case of unusual autobiographical remembering, and it turns out

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Speaker 1: that there's a good chance she more has an O

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Speaker 1: c D related memory issue because a lot of her

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Speaker 1: photographic memory is focused solely on her early life, right, Um,

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Speaker 1: But it was really fascinating, and they've done brain scans actually,

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Speaker 1: and it shows that her hippocampus in the frontal cortex,

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Speaker 1: which as we'll talk about, are really closely involved with

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Speaker 1: the memory formation process. They're normally size, so it might

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Speaker 1: be something more psychological than neurological going on. But I

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Speaker 1: hadn't heard of hyperthymestic syndrome before. I hadn't either, And

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Speaker 1: the guy who wrote the article, cognitive psychologist Gary Marcus,

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Speaker 1: was a little bit skeptical when he heard of this

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Speaker 1: price because he was like, you know, human memory has

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Speaker 1: evolved to a certain point, to a certain degree, and

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Speaker 1: it would be crazy to find someone who functions completely

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Speaker 1: outside of that, you know, like it would have to

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Speaker 1: be something insane to have formed this brain so differently.

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Speaker 1: And in talking with her, that's when he realized, like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: this woman has a compulsion and obsessive compulsion to catalog

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Speaker 1: her own memories because, like you said, those key areas

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Speaker 1: of the brain that function to create in store memories

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Speaker 1: were the same as everybody else's. Yeah, so why don't

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Speaker 1: we talk a little bit about how the brain stores

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Speaker 1: memories because in this conversation we're going to look into

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Speaker 1: forgetfulness in men versus women, and not going so much

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Speaker 1: into things like dementia and Alzheimer's, but just looking at

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Speaker 1: basic memory because I wanted to call out this deal

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Speaker 1: price story to start off with, because Okay, here's a

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Speaker 1: woman who seems to be this rare case of a

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Speaker 1: photographic memory, or as close as you can get to it.

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Speaker 1: So does that mean maybe she's a gold standard of

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Speaker 1: female memory or what's going on? How? How how to

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Speaker 1: start out with do we make those memories? Well, the

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Speaker 1: whole thing is kind of hazy, honestly, Like nobody is

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Speaker 1: one percent shure as far as how our memory works

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Speaker 1: and how we create memories. But it basically goes like this.

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Speaker 1: We have this encoding that happens with the hippocampus and

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Speaker 1: the frontal cortex. The hippocampus kind of integrates all your

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Speaker 1: different perceptions into a single experience. So like if I

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Speaker 1: were to remember this moment, you know, so I'm seeing you,

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Speaker 1: I'm hearing you. I'm smelling the studio if it had

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Speaker 1: a smell, it's pretend it smells like sandwiches. You're smelling

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Speaker 1: my musk. I know, I'm so gross showered. I hope

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Speaker 1: you're not. You can't smell me right now, so yes,

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Speaker 1: site smell um sounds. The hip hippocampus integrates all of

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Speaker 1: this different stuff, whereas the frontal cortex basically kind of

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Speaker 1: helps you decide if someone is something is worth remembering.

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Speaker 1: So like you know, if something crazy or emotion will

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Speaker 1: happen in the studio, I might remember that a year

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Speaker 1: from now, whereas like that would actually differentiate it from

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Speaker 1: any other day in the studio. So that's the frontal

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Speaker 1: cortex telling you, like, hey, you should hang onto that.

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Speaker 1: So that's the encoding part. And add to it your

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Speaker 1: short term memory, so remembering what you just said about

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Speaker 1: your musk, Kristen, How do short term memory work? Usually

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Speaker 1: the short term memory stores up to seven items for

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Speaker 1: no more than twenty to thirty seconds at a time.

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Speaker 1: This is one reason, for instance, why telephone numbers are

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Speaker 1: broken down into the three digit area code and then

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Speaker 1: three numbers followed by four numbers, because by breaking it

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Speaker 1: down that makes it easier for us to remember. But

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Speaker 1: if you were to tell me a cell phone number,

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't remember it that long. It would probably stay

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Speaker 1: in my mind unless I start repeating it over and

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Speaker 1: over and over again. It's pretty fleeting. If it's not

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Speaker 1: gonna be something important, it's just going to dissipate unless

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Speaker 1: I retrieve that number over and over again so that

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Speaker 1: those neural pathways get paved even more. Right, Exactly, Like

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Speaker 1: when I was thinking about this, I realized I still

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Speaker 1: remember my childhood best friend's phone number. You know, before

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Speaker 1: we all had cell phones and didn't commit any phone

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Speaker 1: numbers to memory, Like I actually remember a bunch of

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Speaker 1: those old phone numbers. So it's because I called her

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Speaker 1: all the time to talk about boys. So that means

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Speaker 1: that your best friend's phone number is stored in your

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Speaker 1: long term memory. But if your brain was not able

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Speaker 1: to retrieve that phone number, that is what we call forgetting.

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Speaker 1: For getting. Yeah, so the science of forgetting is just

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Speaker 1: as interesting as the science of remembering. So your hippocampus

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Speaker 1: loses about five per cent of nerve cells each decade,

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Speaker 1: and this creates the you know, stereotypical age related memory

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Speaker 1: loss and the breakdown actually begins in our twenties. So,

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Speaker 1: so hey millennials out there, you're you're starting to lose

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Speaker 1: your memory um making it worse though if you have

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Speaker 1: unhealthy genes. They also said poisons, but things like you're

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Speaker 1: drinking too much or you're smoking too much, all of

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Speaker 1: these things can affect your memory. But the good news

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Speaker 1: is the average seventy year old performs as well on

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Speaker 1: certain cognitive tests as many twenty year olds because there

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Speaker 1: are things like stimulating environ ments, exercise, et cetera that

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Speaker 1: can help ward off that age related memory loss um.

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Speaker 1: But in our day to day, Caroline, there's so many

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Speaker 1: things in our environments and our lifestyles, especially in our

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Speaker 1: twenty one century lifestyles, that can contribute to memory loss,

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Speaker 1: not just that gradual wearing down of the hippocampus. Right,

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Speaker 1: I didn't realize that food can affect your memory um.

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Speaker 1: One study showed that things like carbs that spike your

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Speaker 1: insulin negatively affect your memory because it's that insulin spike,

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Speaker 1: not the carve itself, for you know, not your pretzel.

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Speaker 1: The pretzel is not causing you to forget things. That's

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Speaker 1: the spike and insulin that affects your memory. Fish, on

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Speaker 1: the other hand, helps, but not fried, So no fish

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Speaker 1: and chips to help your memory actual like broiled or

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Speaker 1: grilled and kind of related to that, kind of related

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Speaker 1: to the food thing. Medication taking cholesterol lowering statins may

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Speaker 1: actually lower that high insulin in the brain associated with dementia.

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Speaker 1: So I can I can eat microssant and just pop

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Speaker 1: some cholesterol film. Perfect. There we go. That's a recipe

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Speaker 1: for a wonderful outcome. I'm sure Google could actually be

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Speaker 1: another thing contributing to our memory loss. Uh. There was

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Speaker 1: a two thousand eleven study out of Columbia University which

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Speaker 1: found that our reliance on Internet search engines like Google

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Speaker 1: can influence what's called our transactive memory. And these are

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Speaker 1: those bits of minutia, the trivial details that we don't

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Speaker 1: necessarily feel an immediate need to encode over and over

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Speaker 1: it again to get into that long term memory storage,

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Speaker 1: because we can rely on other people or now our smartphones, say,

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Speaker 1: to retrieve that information for us. And this is something

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Speaker 1: that I've started trying to do more often, Caroline, whether

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Speaker 1: it's simple arithmetic or thinking up say a capital of

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Speaker 1: a state that I don't immediately recall actually making myself

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Speaker 1: sit there and think of what it is rather than

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Speaker 1: just going to Google, right, because it's good for our

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Speaker 1: brain to do that. It is good. But I mean,

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Speaker 1: one concern expressed in that article about the Internet shaping

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Speaker 1: our brains is that we are literally shaping our brains.

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Speaker 1: That our brains are adapting to this new technology, and

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Speaker 1: pretty soon we'll all be like, I don't know, with

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Speaker 1: empty memories, just drooling on ourselves, just popping insulin pills.

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Speaker 1: Let's eating baggetts. I mean, I mean, that doesn't sound terrible. One.

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Speaker 1: One other thing to keep in mind is that sleep

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Speaker 1: affects how we remember things also, and poor quality sleep,

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Speaker 1: as you might imagine, is linked to poor memory. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and different types of sleep correlate to different types of

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Speaker 1: memory processes. For instance, slow way of sleep is linked

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Speaker 1: to declarative memory, recalling facts and events, So if you

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Speaker 1: don't get a good night's sleep, your memory might be

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Speaker 1: a little hazy in the morning. And then rem sleep,

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Speaker 1: for instance, is related to memory processing. There's this idea

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Speaker 1: that the dreaming that tends to go on during rem

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Speaker 1: sleep is your brain processing past events stead have happened,

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Speaker 1: sort of cataloging things that frontal cortex saying okay, do

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Speaker 1: we want to remember this or not? Right? And so, actually,

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Speaker 1: if you get fewer than six hours of sleep a night,

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Speaker 1: it'll likely have an adverse effect on memory. And I

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Speaker 1: was actually just talking about sleep side note with a friend,

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Speaker 1: and we were talking about how tired we were. Even

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Speaker 1: though we've been going to bed earlier, like trying to

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Speaker 1: get really good sleep, We've been even more tired the

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Speaker 1: day after. Whereas sometimes if I get like four hours

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Speaker 1: of sleep, I'm like rre and to go. But I

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Speaker 1: honestly think maybe I'm just getting by on adrenaline. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I know exactly what you're talking about. Although I have

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Speaker 1: a feeling if we were chronically getting right the four

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Speaker 1: hours of sleep, things would be bad and I would

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Speaker 1: just look ragged. I would be cranky. I would be

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Speaker 1: very cranky. And speaking of crankiness, stress is another big

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Speaker 1: strain on our memories. Uh. There was a two thousand

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Speaker 1: eight U See Irvine study on stress which found that

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Speaker 1: acute stress activate something called cortico trope and releasing hormones

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Speaker 1: that disrupt the process by which the brain collects and

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Speaker 1: stores memories because it degrades the synapses, those connections between

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Speaker 1: neurons that carry that sensory information that make up our memories. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I act absolutely by that, Like I absolutely have felt

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Speaker 1: that when I'm like super stressed out and I'm hitting

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Speaker 1: a wall and I'm just like, it's the limits of

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Speaker 1: my abilities. That's when i have to make to do

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Speaker 1: lists and have to fill up my calendar because when

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Speaker 1: I'm super stressed out, it almost feels like I can't

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Speaker 1: hold onto anything and I've got to chart at all out.

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Speaker 1: So I totally have experienced that. It's just your synapse

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Speaker 1: is degrading. No big deal. Lord. Another thing health related

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Speaker 1: is women with type two diabetes are actually at a

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Speaker 1: greater risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, which is the

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Speaker 1: stage between normal brain aging and dementia. And then, finally,

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Speaker 1: to round out this list of things that are contributing

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Speaker 1: to memory loss, UH and forgetfulness in general, depression. Depression

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Speaker 1: is strongly linked to memorily lost because of increased amounts

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Speaker 1: of cortisol and other stress hormone in our bloodstream, right,

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Speaker 1: and that actually shrinks certain areas of the brain, particularly

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Speaker 1: the hippocampus, which we said is responsible for a large

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Speaker 1: part of our memory. And something I found very intriguing

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Speaker 1: about this depression memory link is that depressed people remember

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Speaker 1: mostly negative memory. I mean interesting, So you're if you're

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Speaker 1: depressed that's linked to poor memory. However, you're really good

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Speaker 1: at remembering the negative, which probably makes it even more

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Speaker 1: it's kind of perpetuates that depressive cycle. Um, but what

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Speaker 1: about sex differences, because obviously these kinds of things sleep, stress,

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Speaker 1: google can affect men and women alike. But there's one

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Speaker 1: area that memory researchers have really started zeroing in on,

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Speaker 1: and that is sex differences. How are these memory formation

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Speaker 1: processes different in male brains versus female brains? And then

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Speaker 1: that brings up the question, while you know our men

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Speaker 1: or women more forgetful, Uh, we're just different, were very different. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: For instance, men will typically rely more on right hemisphere

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Speaker 1: brain activity to encode memory, and so they tend to

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Speaker 1: retain the gist of things better than details intrusferring. And

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Speaker 1: an unfortunate thing that men are more likely to experience

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Speaker 1: in terms of memory is a mild cognitive impairment, which

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Speaker 1: we just mentioned a minute ago. A study tracking two

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Speaker 1: thousand people over the age of seventy found that men

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Speaker 1: were one point five times more likely to develop him

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Speaker 1: C I, which is, like we said that stage between

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Speaker 1: normal brain aging and dementia, we should say that m

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Speaker 1: CI doesn't always develop into dementia Alzheimer's necessarily, but men

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Speaker 1: are more likely to get it. And this is surprising

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Speaker 1: since previous studies have found that more women suffer from dementia. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and we're not going to get into, like I said,

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Speaker 1: the dementia and Alzheimer's aspect of memory loss today, but

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Speaker 1: going back into earlier age, you know, we've said that

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Speaker 1: men tend to remember the gist of things better, whereas

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Speaker 1: women remember more details. And this was confirmed in a

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Speaker 1: two thousand third team study out of McMaster University that

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Speaker 1: looked at how men and women remember faces and facial features,

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Speaker 1: and women were better at remembering faces because they look

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Speaker 1: more at new faces and especially our facial features. And

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Speaker 1: they figured this out the scientists did by using eye

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Speaker 1: tracking technology to actually look and see where women were

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Speaker 1: looking on the faces and for how long. And on

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Speaker 1: top of that, women especially remember other women's faces better,

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Speaker 1: which is so not surprising to me because just anecdotally,

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Speaker 1: I find myself quote unquote checking out women a lot

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Speaker 1: more than men, whether it's like looking at how her

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Speaker 1: hair is done or makeup or what she's wearing. And

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Speaker 1: my Boyfriendly would call me out on this. Sometimes if

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Speaker 1: all like follow a woman with my eyes is walking

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Speaker 1: down the street, I'm like, what are you doing? Like looking,

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Speaker 1: I'm checking around. I'm just checking her out, just curious

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Speaker 1: to see. That's funny because I actually had a really

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Speaker 1: embarrassing This caused an embarrassing social situation. I met a

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Speaker 1: friend of a friend, um, this guy, and I met

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Speaker 1: him at a party, so there was drinking and whatever.

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Speaker 1: And then the next time I encountered him, it was

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Speaker 1: in a completely different context and he was like Caroline, hey,

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Speaker 1: and I was just like hey, um stranger waving at me,

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Speaker 1: and he's like, it's it's me. I remember it's so

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Speaker 1: and So's friend. I was like, oh, yeah, hey, how

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Speaker 1: are you doing. It's so weird that I'm seeing you

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Speaker 1: here completely out of context. This happened three more times.

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Speaker 1: That has never happened to me. I remember faces like no,

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Speaker 1: I won't remember your name, but I remember faces like

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Speaker 1: nobody's business. And this poor guy like such a friendly

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Speaker 1: he's such a friendly FI and I recognize him now,

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Speaker 1: although he doesn't like approach me this Like I read

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Speaker 1: it to him in the grocery store one time, and

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Speaker 1: I made a point of being like, hey, how are

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Speaker 1: you doing? Because I had forgotten his face like seventeen times.

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Speaker 1: Do you think if it had been a woman's face,

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Speaker 1: if he had been a she, maybe you would remember

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Speaker 1: it better. I mean maybe, I don't know what the

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Speaker 1: deal was. It was actually really embarrassing, and I was

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Speaker 1: mad at my memory. But now he's I'm sure in

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Speaker 1: your brain. He is burned into my brain. He and

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Speaker 1: his wife, like like the whole everybody that is surrounding him.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, remember these people because it was really embarrassing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that would contradict this finding that women have superior episodic memories,

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Speaker 1: that that memory, for instance, of going to that party,

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Speaker 1: of who you met, who you talked to, who you

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Speaker 1: saw right. Well, see, that's the thing. That's why I'm

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Speaker 1: That's why I mentioned context, because like I remember that party,

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Speaker 1: and so I remember meeting a person, you know, and

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Speaker 1: then I remember the various times that I ran into

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Speaker 1: him very clearly. It's just when I saw him, I

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Speaker 1: was like, oh, you're talking to me, like you know,

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Speaker 1: me so embarrassing. But yeah, So speaking of episodic memory,

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Speaker 1: that is a type of long term memory based on

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Speaker 1: personal experiences. And according to a Swedish study looking at

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Speaker 1: sex differences in different types of memory like episodic, semantic,

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Speaker 1: and primary, they found that women outperformed men only an

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Speaker 1: episodic memory, possibly due to our higher verbal ability. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they found that women excelled in remembering things like words, objects, pictures,

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Speaker 1: or everyday events, whereas men outperformed women in remembering symbolic,

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Speaker 1: non linguistic information. It goes back to the whole thing

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Speaker 1: we think about a lot of times in terms of uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, men can read maps really well, whereas women

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Speaker 1: might get from point A to point B by using

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Speaker 1: more landmarks. Right, So that would be called the type

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Speaker 1: of symbolic memory that men uses visuo spatial processing. There,

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Speaker 1: we got it out. That's a long word. And women's

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Speaker 1: memory skills actually are reduced when we are forced to

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Speaker 1: use visuospatial processing. So that's interesting. But that's not like

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Speaker 1: an ingrained born with it. That is simply something that

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Speaker 1: is different in the way you are educated, trained to think,

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Speaker 1: et cetera. Another point, women are better recognizing familiar odors.

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Speaker 1: Oh huh, yeah, because I mean, you know, you know

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Speaker 1: how strongly like odor is attached to memory, Like I

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Speaker 1: can smell something and be like kindergarten, lunch room, elementary school.

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Speaker 1: You know, like I can have those memories. But apparently

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Speaker 1: I can do that so well because I am a woman.

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Speaker 1: Women are better at it. I wonder if that is

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Speaker 1: linked it all. Then to palette, the taste palette. For

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Speaker 1: some reason, the first thing that popped in my head

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Speaker 1: when you said women and odor, I thought about, um

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Speaker 1: Somalia's you know, the expert wine tasters, because you know,

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Speaker 1: you have to smell the wine and take in all

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Speaker 1: of the different notes and then you taste it right.

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Speaker 1: And I wonder if podcast idea women and wine. Here

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Speaker 1: we go. Oh, we'll have to do some really heavy

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Speaker 1: duty research for that. But what's up with these sex differences?

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Speaker 1: I've a sleep with things like videospatial You talked about

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Speaker 1: how it can be made up for with socialization, just teaching,

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Speaker 1: for instance, people how to read maps or other things. Um.

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Speaker 1: But one thing that researchers are homing in on our

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Speaker 1: sex hormones is it a difference between levels of estrogen

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Speaker 1: and testosterone in the brain. Yes, sex hormones do have

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Speaker 1: an effect to a degree, especially on our brains, not

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Speaker 1: just our memory. Yeah, there was a blog posts over

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Speaker 1: at the Encyclopedia Britannica that had a tidy explanation of

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Speaker 1: how estrogen and testosterone hormones impact our memory formation, because

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Speaker 1: it says that it really boils down to how the

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Speaker 1: hormones influenced the flow of blood through blood vessels and

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Speaker 1: how that influence how much blood reaches different parts of

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Speaker 1: the brain, which in turn could affect the growth of

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Speaker 1: neurons that are critical for memory formation. So it's like

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Speaker 1: estrogen and testaccone might serve as gate keepers in a

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Speaker 1: way of activating different synapses and neurons in different parts

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Speaker 1: of the brain. So test saserone perhaps, And I'm just

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Speaker 1: kind of going out on a limb here. Testas foe

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Speaker 1: might light up those visuospatial aspects of the brain, whereas

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Speaker 1: estrogen maybe is lighting up more of verbal centers and

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Speaker 1: the odor sensors and the nose. The estrogen goes straight

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Speaker 1: to the nose. Uh No, it actually doesn't. I was

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Speaker 1: I was joking about that, But what I'm not joking

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Speaker 1: about is how hormonal birth control can influence how we remember,

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Speaker 1: and this idea of the influence of hormonal birth control

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Speaker 1: was significant for researchers because they're like, Okay, here's a

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Speaker 1: great way to see how we can control estrogen in

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Speaker 1: a woman's body and progesterom and see whether or not

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Speaker 1: that influences is their memory process, And yes, it totally does. Yeah. So,

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Speaker 1: this study on hormonal birth control found that women on

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Speaker 1: birth control remembered the gist of emotional events more accurately,

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Speaker 1: whereas naturally cycling women were more likely to remember specific details.

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Speaker 1: And the science kind of in the middle of that

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Speaker 1: is that hormonal birth control suppresses ganatotropin releasing hormone that

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Speaker 1: suppresses the levels of estrogen and progeson, likely disrupting sex

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Speaker 1: and stress hormone interactions and therefore cognitive performance and memory.

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Speaker 1: And one way that this could be applied to future

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Speaker 1: research is really exploring why women are more likely two

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Speaker 1: to three times more likely to experience post traumatic stress disorder.

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Speaker 1: They suspect that it has to do with sex hormones

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Speaker 1: involved in that memory and coding process and just offer

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Speaker 1: more evidence for how strongly tied uh the memory process

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Speaker 1: might be to sex hormones. There have been some findings

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Speaker 1: about the influence of menopause actually on memory, because a

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Speaker 1: symptom of menopause or side effect of it is memory loss.

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Speaker 1: Women who are not only having those hot flashes also

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Speaker 1: report not having the best short term memory. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 1: actually linked. Researchers at University of Illinois, Chicago found that

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Speaker 1: the number of hot flashes a woman has is linked

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Speaker 1: to poorer memory performance. They also found, however, that hormone

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Speaker 1: therapy does not appear to interact with memory function, and

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Speaker 1: that's tied into a Melbourne University study that found that

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Speaker 1: post menopausal women treated with a testosterone gel showed better

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Speaker 1: improvement in verbal learning and memory compared to women who

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Speaker 1: received a placebo. But the good news for any women

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Speaker 1: listening who are going through menopause or approaching menopause, menopause

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Speaker 1: related cognitive declines appear to be temporary. So it's kind

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Speaker 1: of like what happens with quote unquote pregnancy brain. A

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Speaker 1: lot of pregnant women will report just being incredibly scatter

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Speaker 1: brained and not remembering things that they normally would and

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Speaker 1: that goes away. Similar type of things seems to be

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Speaker 1: going on. Uh, post Menopausally, after you're out of it,

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Speaker 1: your brain recovers, right. And there are some other things

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Speaker 1: I found online that help older women who feel like

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Speaker 1: they are experiencing this decline. Losing weight is one. After

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Speaker 1: weight loss, women's brain activity changes in the regions that

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Speaker 1: are vital for memory tasks. That's coming out of a

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Speaker 1: Swedish study from earlier this year. And there's also been

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Speaker 1: I feel like not only a lot of research, but

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Speaker 1: a lot of more conversation and publicity about how for

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Speaker 1: older adults brain activities keeping your your mind more active.

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Speaker 1: My mom, for instance, has taken up sudoku so that

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Speaker 1: she can just kind of exercise her brain a little

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Speaker 1: bit more, just toward off memory loss. Again, we're not

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Speaker 1: talking about things like to mention Alzheimer's, which do tend

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Speaker 1: to affect older women more than older men um but

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Speaker 1: there are definitely things that can be done to keep

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Speaker 1: the brain sharp age absolutely exercise, staying active mentally and physically.

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Speaker 1: So the episode title for this podcast is are men

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Speaker 1: more forgetful? Because I think the stereotype is that, or

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Speaker 1: maybe it's just a stereotype of your old woman, is

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Speaker 1: that men tend to be more forgetful. But I don't

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Speaker 1: think that's the case. I think it's just a difference

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Speaker 1: in how we remember. They know that something happened, they

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Speaker 1: can tell you the gist of what's going on, but

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Speaker 1: maybe we just focus in more on the nitty gritty,

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Speaker 1: the details. I wish I could remember where I put

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Speaker 1: my keys though, and see, but see, that's I'm That's

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Speaker 1: another reason why I'm an exception to the because women

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Speaker 1: tend to remember more things like that, like where you

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Speaker 1: put your keys. But I have to have a bowl

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Speaker 1: next to the front door where I can drop my

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Speaker 1: keys and my work badge and anything else important in

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Speaker 1: because otherwise I'll be running around, like you know, last

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Speaker 1: minute in the morning trying to find it. Yeah. I'm

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Speaker 1: definitely a habitual list maker for that reason. The to

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Speaker 1: do list is crucial for my day. Yeah, and I

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Speaker 1: that that whole like short term memory seven things, seven

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Speaker 1: items thing is exactly why I have to make a

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Speaker 1: grocery list too, because I'll go in. Yeah, I went

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Speaker 1: to the grocery store the other day and I was like,

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Speaker 1: I was mainly there for one thing, beans canned beans,

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Speaker 1: and I ran into like I had some other things

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Speaker 1: I wanted to get. I ran into a friend in

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Speaker 1: the parking lot, got into a really long conversation, went in,

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Speaker 1: got everything but the freaking being. Oh I hate it

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Speaker 1: when that happens. I don't know. Maybe my list was

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Speaker 1: eight items and I forgot the being. The beans tipped

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00:26:55,560 --> 00:26:59,200
Speaker 1: it over. That's all your brain could take. Um. So yeah,

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00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: I mean in terms of of like who wins it remembering,

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00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:06,000
Speaker 1: I think it's a toss up there. But it's fascinating

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00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:10,199
Speaker 1: to look at the differences though, and and all the

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00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:12,800
Speaker 1: different things that affected. Maybe I should take up sudok

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00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:16,440
Speaker 1: who also. Yeah, I mean, and sometimes people get uh

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00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:20,119
Speaker 1: nervous with conversations about differences between the mole and the

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00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:25,000
Speaker 1: female brain, but the evidence seems pretty clear that there

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00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:30,400
Speaker 1: are some influences, possibly mediated by differences into how we

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00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:36,040
Speaker 1: process sense, reinformation and encoded into our brains. Yeah. I mean, obviously,

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00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:38,920
Speaker 1: if there are differences between naturally cycling women and women

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00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:42,720
Speaker 1: on hormonal birth control, I mean, yeah, they're obviously some

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00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:48,680
Speaker 1: spects hormone differences that affect memory, and differences don't necessarily

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00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:55,160
Speaker 1: imply superiority, absolutely not, So any thoughts about memory if

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00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:59,879
Speaker 1: you do, though, anecdotally find that men are more forgive

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00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:02,399
Speaker 1: al women more forgetful or if any of this resonated

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00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:06,040
Speaker 1: with you, email us. Mom Stuff at Discovery dot com

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00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 1: is where you can send letters. You can also message

447
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:12,159
Speaker 1: us on Facebook or tweet us at Mom's Stuff podcast.

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00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,600
Speaker 1: And we have a couple of letters to share. And

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00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:20,240
Speaker 1: now back to our letters. So you've got a couple

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00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 1: of letters here from listeners about our episode on Instagram.

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00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:28,520
Speaker 1: And by the way, if you are not following Being

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00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:32,359
Speaker 1: Caroline on Instagram, head over today we are at stuff.

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00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:34,560
Speaker 1: Mom never told you follow us. There are lots of

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00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:39,560
Speaker 1: adorable pictures. So this first one is from Ali and

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00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:42,280
Speaker 1: she writes, I'm a fashion designer and I work from

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00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 1: home by myself. I love working from home, and there

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00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:47,600
Speaker 1: are two things that I think really make it work

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00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:52,240
Speaker 1: for me. Podcasts and Instagram. When you don't have any

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00:28:52,240 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 1: real colleagues, you missed that random chatter that happens at work.

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00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:57,880
Speaker 1: And I find that listening to a variety of podcasts

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00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 1: and following other creative people on Instagram am fills this

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00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 1: void in a way that creates two kinds of virtual colleagues.

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00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:07,760
Speaker 1: They're the colleagues that chat to you all day while

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00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 1: you're working that's you, guys, and the ones you catch

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00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:14,720
Speaker 1: up with on your lunch breaker after work, the instagrammers.

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00:29:15,080 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 1: I love stopping work and sitting to see what everybody

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00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:20,160
Speaker 1: has been up to that day and what they've been

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00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:22,719
Speaker 1: working on. Because most of the people I follow are

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00:29:22,760 --> 00:29:25,960
Speaker 1: also small creative businesses, most of the photos in my

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00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:30,720
Speaker 1: feet are their finished products, work in progress, their workspaces, materials,

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00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:34,800
Speaker 1: and processes. It's interesting and inspiring and often motivates me

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00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:37,640
Speaker 1: to work harder because I want to have something pretty

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00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:40,480
Speaker 1: to show them to. I also love it because it's

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00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:43,480
Speaker 1: an extremely positive place when you follow the right people,

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00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 1: and there are lots of pictures of dogs, so things

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00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 1: are writing in there are pictures of dogs. I just

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00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,320
Speaker 1: love puppy pictures. I could waste an entire day looking

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00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 1: at them. Alrighty, well, I have an email here from Brooke.

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00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: She's says, I just listened to the episode on Instagram

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00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 1: and enjoyed it. I wanted to mention another category of

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00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 1: picks I frequently see on Instagram, mainly because I am

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00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 1: one of the ones posting them pictures of adorable children

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00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:17,480
Speaker 1: winky face. I originally started posting pictures of my kids

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00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 1: on blogs and Facebook for grandparents and relatives who don't

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00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:23,440
Speaker 1: get to see my two girls very often. But now

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00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:26,800
Speaker 1: I have incorporated Instagram as well. None of my relatives

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00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 1: are on Instagram, but my friends enjoy seeing pictures of

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00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:31,920
Speaker 1: my kids, and I enjoy seeing pictures of their kids.

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00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 1: Sometimes the pictures of our kids together, smiley faith. Now.

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00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:37,880
Speaker 1: I know this is the modern day equivalent to a

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00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 1: proud parent pulling photos out of their wallets, but I

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00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:42,800
Speaker 1: figure if someone gets tired of seeing pictures of my kids,

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00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:45,840
Speaker 1: they can just stop following me. Winky face won't hurt

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00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:49,920
Speaker 1: my feelings anyway. Just wanted to mention this. Also, thank

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00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 1: you for reading the listener mail from Joanna about miscarriage

496
00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 1: before my two kids were born. I experienced both infertility

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00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:58,960
Speaker 1: and a devastating loss at twenty one week, so I

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00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 1: could really relate to what she said. I too, would

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00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,080
Speaker 1: like to hear a podcast on miscarriage and pregnancy laws.

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00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:08,280
Speaker 1: It helps to hear other stories and know you are

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00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,600
Speaker 1: not alone. So thanks so much to Brook for sharing

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00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 1: her stories, and uh we hope we hear from more

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00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 1: of you. Yeah, you can email us at Mom's Stuff

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00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:21,120
Speaker 1: at Discovery dot com. You can also send us a

505
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:23,800
Speaker 1: message on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at mom

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00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 1: Stuff Podcast. We're on Tumbler as well at stuff mom

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00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:31,000
Speaker 1: Never Told You dot tumbler dot com, also of course

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00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 1: on Instagram. Now check out all of our little ruble

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00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 1: pictures at Mom's Stuff Podcasts there. And finally, we are

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00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: on YouTube. We've got four brand new videos that come

511
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,120
Speaker 1: out every week, so you should head over to YouTube

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00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:50,240
Speaker 1: dot com slash stuff Mom Never Told You and subscribe

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00:31:50,800 --> 00:32:00,240
Speaker 1: for more on this and thousands of other topics dot com.

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Speaker 1: Four