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Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff to blow your Mind from how Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot Com. Hey you welcome to stuff to below

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Speaker 1: your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie,

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Speaker 1: do you like spring? Do you like the season spring?

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Speaker 1: Of course I do. Yeah, How could you not like spring?

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Speaker 1: It's true. It's even even though I've never been a

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Speaker 1: summer person. Where I used to not be a summer person,

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Speaker 1: I always did like springs because no matter how short

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Speaker 1: your spring is depending on where you live, and it

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Speaker 1: feels like we have very short springs at times here

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Speaker 1: in the South. It's it's a time when things begin

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Speaker 1: to come alive a little bit, but not everything I

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Speaker 1: was alive yet, not all of the really annoying things

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Speaker 1: have have have sprung up around you, such as the

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Speaker 1: mosquitoes necessarily, or the poison ivy, all the things that

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Speaker 1: drive you indoors um. But it's just nice enough to

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Speaker 1: to exist outside, to not have to turn on the

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Speaker 1: air conditioning or the heat. You can set around, you

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Speaker 1: can read you're comfortable out there in nature, as perhaps

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Speaker 1: got into um for me, it's just emerging from winter's

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Speaker 1: dark shadow, right because you have been inside, you've been,

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Speaker 1: you know, you've had cabin fever, and all of a

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Speaker 1: sudden you can step outside and the sun is a

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Speaker 1: shining and the festivals are are all over the place,

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Speaker 1: especially in Atlanta. April is festival of Go Go Time.

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Speaker 1: And for me, the best sign of spring in Atlanta

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Speaker 1: is when you see people walking down the sidewalk with

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Speaker 1: their pillows for International Pillow Fight Day. I did not

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Speaker 1: know this existed April five. Huh yeah, because really, I mean,

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Speaker 1: you've got that big blue sky. People are about to

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Speaker 1: collabor each other with with soft weapons. Is this the thing?

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Speaker 1: This sounds This is a little crazy like Shirley Jackson's

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Speaker 1: The Lottery, you know, like it. It sounds like something

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Speaker 1: you would encounter in some isolated town and then you

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Speaker 1: would yeah, Freedom Parkway. Well actually I think this year

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Speaker 1: it's going to be in Grant Park. But every year

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Speaker 1: in Freedom Parkway people gathered with their pillows and you

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Speaker 1: see feathers just to fly and wow, well that that

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Speaker 1: is strange. But indeed to your point, though, spring is

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Speaker 1: a time where you you come out of your your hibernation,

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Speaker 1: you come out of the darkness and to get down

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Speaker 1: to the very primal root. Stop it springtime means the

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Speaker 1: winner didn't kill us, that that god or the gods

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Speaker 1: did not abandon us to the darkness and the chill

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Speaker 1: of night. Like springtime came and it saved our lives.

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Speaker 1: Things are growing again, food is available again, and it's

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Speaker 1: to be celebrated. And you see this in different cultures,

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Speaker 1: you know, since time immemorial, right, because people are they're relieved,

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Speaker 1: and they're going outside and they are celebrating this. You

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Speaker 1: see that this in the festival of Holly, right. Um,

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Speaker 1: this is a celebration of the colors of unity and brotherhood.

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Speaker 1: You see this in India where people go around they

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Speaker 1: pelt each other in the face of all these beautiful

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Speaker 1: different colored um sands. And this is a way of saying,

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Speaker 1: as you say, hey, guess what we all made it.

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Speaker 1: All of us are brothers and sisters, and this whole

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Speaker 1: human thing we survived in another winter. Yeah, I mean.

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Speaker 1: In the Christian tradition, of course, you have the the

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Speaker 1: death and Resurrection of Jesus as well, which which fits

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Speaker 1: right in there and plays upon on older uh Easter

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Speaker 1: traditions as well. Now, now it also brings up the

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Speaker 1: question why must we have tax season right in the

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Speaker 1: spring like that seems to really just sour the whole equation.

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Speaker 1: It's like, we finally come out, we're free, we're alive.

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Speaker 1: Now you have to pay taxes. It's kind of like

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Speaker 1: having to worry with your car tax when your birthday

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Speaker 1: comes along. Oh, it's just like the I r s

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Speaker 1: to be like ha ha ha spring. You think everything

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Speaker 1: is renewing and emerging. Death to your money exactly. I mean,

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Speaker 1: because it comes back. What are the two things you

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Speaker 1: can't dodge in life? Right, death and Texas? And there

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Speaker 1: you go, and they are interlaced with each other, death

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Speaker 1: and taxes at a very basic level. But that's a

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Speaker 1: rant for another time. Yes, that is um. So let's

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Speaker 1: talk about this idea of spring a little bit more

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Speaker 1: in the context of how it might just not only

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Speaker 1: symbolize this reemergence, but it may even change our behavior.

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Speaker 1: But before we get to that, we should probably talk

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Speaker 1: about how much time we spend indoors. Yes, And it's

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Speaker 1: pretty pretty disturbing because because most of us we go

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Speaker 1: through our lives and we don't necessarily think of it

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Speaker 1: in those terms, like we're not keeping a precise diary

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Speaker 1: of how much time we spend outside dear Diary. I

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Speaker 1: mean I feel a little more in touch with it

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Speaker 1: these days, with the with the toddler, because taking the

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Speaker 1: toddler outside the park is huge. And so when like

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Speaker 1: suddenly not being able to go outside for a few

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Speaker 1: days or a week is is very noticeable because it starts,

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Speaker 1: you know, clawing at eufanity. Yeah. Well, according to the

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Speaker 1: Environmental Protection Agency, Americans spent about eighty seven percent of

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Speaker 1: their time indoors and another six percent in their vehicles.

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Speaker 1: And as you say, you probably you don't really unless

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Speaker 1: you are, you know, putting it down in your die,

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Speaker 1: or you don't realize because you think, well, I went

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Speaker 1: outside to go to the grocery store, I went outside

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Speaker 1: to do the other errand and you feel like you've

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Speaker 1: had outside experiences when in fact you have been inside

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Speaker 1: sort of cloistered, especially if you work in an office, right,

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Speaker 1: and and you see, you know, different surveys make that

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Speaker 1: percentage a little higher to like I've seen seen nine

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Speaker 1: for Americans on a two thousand nine e p A study.

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Speaker 1: I've seen for people in industrialized countries on another study.

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Speaker 1: So it's a talking percentage to to really think about. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: social you take that plus that six percent. You get

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Speaker 1: that really inside a location, right, that's sealed in, right,

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Speaker 1: And that's key because we we did a whole episode

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Speaker 1: talking about how artificial indoor environments, how those are really

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Speaker 1: alien environments that we've we've created like not only just structurally,

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Speaker 1: but also the uh, the the micro biology of those structures,

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Speaker 1: the things that we're breathing in. We've created these strange

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Speaker 1: realities that are separate from the natural environment with well

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Speaker 1: we've evolved to thrive in. That's right. We did. We

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Speaker 1: looked at that study with hospitals opening their windows to

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Speaker 1: let fresh air and their fresh microbes, I guess you

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Speaker 1: could say, and that being exceedingly beneficial to the patients. Um. Now,

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Speaker 1: also consider that when you are inside, you are most

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Speaker 1: likely sitting down or lying down in the ladder. Of

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Speaker 1: course is necessary for sleep, but the former, as we know,

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Speaker 1: is associated with a smartgese board of physical ailments, including

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Speaker 1: an increased risk of type two diabetes. So all of

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Speaker 1: this sedentary inside stuff not so great force, and of

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Speaker 1: course it would play out in many different ways. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I also want to point out that according to the

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Speaker 1: e p A, indoor levels of pollutants maybe two to

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Speaker 1: five times higher and occasionally more than a hundred times

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Speaker 1: higher than outdoor levels, which is important to think about,

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Speaker 1: especially here in Atlantic where occasionally we received these alert

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Speaker 1: saying that if you're very young, are very old, please

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Speaker 1: don't go outside today because the air might destroy you. Um.

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Speaker 1: But then you have to start stop and think, well,

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Speaker 1: what what kind of air am I fleeing to? You know? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but let's let's get toned to the more like rainbows

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Speaker 1: and kitten farts here thinking about it. I know, I know,

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Speaker 1: but let's take out the sun and look at it,

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Speaker 1: because she'll shine upon us and take away all of

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Speaker 1: our ailments. The power of the sun is immense. When

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Speaker 1: you step out into the sun, those rays or about

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Speaker 1: a hundred and forty nine million kilometers away, and when

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Speaker 1: they hit your skin, they unleash a chemical chain reaction

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Speaker 1: that benefits us. For instance, vitamin D is produced yes,

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Speaker 1: which most of us do not get enough of no,

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Speaker 1: and that helps to absorb calcium and foods and which

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Speaker 1: of course that helps to grow bone and and uh

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Speaker 1: maintain bone health. And it also helps to bolster the

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Speaker 1: immune system. So it makes sense that when you go

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Speaker 1: out into the sun, wonderful thing has happened. You should

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Speaker 1: wear some screen of course, yes, yeah, is that there's

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Speaker 1: too much light makes the baby go blind, as they say.

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Speaker 1: Now a more quantitative look at this is a two

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Speaker 1: thousand and eight study published in the journal Psychological Science

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Speaker 1: which looked at the cognitive benefits of spending some time

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Speaker 1: interacting with old nature. University of Michigan psychologist Mac Berman

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Speaker 1: took a sample group of thirty six people, broke them

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Speaker 1: into two groups, and then put them through a series

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Speaker 1: of rigorous cognitive test He then let each group take breaks,

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Speaker 1: one group walking around the city street and the other

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Speaker 1: through a secluded wooded park. Now, of course, who do

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Speaker 1: you think performed better on the cognitive tests later on?

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Speaker 1: And and of course memory being one of those things

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Speaker 1: the nature group, Because the idea is that strolling in

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Speaker 1: a city forces the brain to constantly remain vigilant as

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Speaker 1: you navigate cars and people, and you sets out the

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Speaker 1: relevant information from from irrelevant information. Um, so for instance, relevant,

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Speaker 1: oh don't say up in that poop? Irrelevant there's a

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Speaker 1: sale on bras right, Um. The end result is that

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Speaker 1: those those city walkers are having a less restorative scenario

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Speaker 1: for their brains. In your prefrontal cortex is very occupied,

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Speaker 1: so your cognitive functioning in terms of learning is not

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Speaker 1: going to be as great. So it kind of takes

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Speaker 1: our sort of everyday myopic view of the world that

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Speaker 1: the flashlight view, and maybe opens it up a little

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Speaker 1: bit a little more lamp like where're actually absorbing sense

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Speaker 1: data a little more openly. Yeah, because you're in a

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Speaker 1: calm environment, Um, you don't have to worry about what's

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Speaker 1: coming next so much. And of course it's fascinating too

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Speaker 1: when you you start then asking the question, well, how

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Speaker 1: much time do when you spend out of the day,

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Speaker 1: I'm spending this enormous like like hovering near nine of

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Speaker 1: my life is spent indoors, So how much of that

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Speaker 1: do I have to give back? Like some impossible amount

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Speaker 1: do I have to give back? Well, studies show that

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Speaker 1: just five minutes a day can give you that boost

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Speaker 1: in mental health. Just five minutes, Like that's that's not

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Speaker 1: even that's not even all of your lunch break, you know,

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Speaker 1: that's just that's just a leaving work five minutes early

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Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, that's from two thousand and ten research

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Speaker 1: published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, and they

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Speaker 1: looked at self esteem and nature. And they found that

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Speaker 1: just that the five minutes of people who were engaged

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Speaker 1: in exercise, cycling, walking, running, gardening, farming. Um, if you

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Speaker 1: had that amount of time, then your self esteem and

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Speaker 1: your mood would be elevated. And of course they measured

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Speaker 1: this using standard psychological tests before and after the activities.

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Speaker 1: Now smoke breaks don't count though, right, uh, I don't

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Speaker 1: recall that being covered. We depend, I guess on the

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Speaker 1: nature of your smoke break, but probably not so. Of course,

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Speaker 1: the idea begins to emerge. We should frolic outdoors daily

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Speaker 1: for at least five minutes more if possible. But is

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Speaker 1: there something to spring itself? Are these day ease of

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Speaker 1: sunshine really special in that sense of of re emergence?

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Speaker 1: Is that well founded? Is that not just symbolic? Do

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Speaker 1: you should we just take off spring some work. Well

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Speaker 1: there's spring break, of course, which you know, to a

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Speaker 1: certain extent, just one week. Yeah, but the whole season? Yes? Okay,

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Speaker 1: well yeah, this gets into the whole question. Is there

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Speaker 1: not only link between spring and mood, but is there

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Speaker 1: a link between weather and mood, between climate and modd Like,

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Speaker 1: how much of what's going on in the environment is

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Speaker 1: affecting my mental state to begin with. Right, all right,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna answer that very question. Alright, we're back, and

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Speaker 1: we're discussing this question. Does the weather, does the climate?

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Speaker 1: Does this everything going on outside the window? Does it

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Speaker 1: affect affect our mood? And we often fall into the

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Speaker 1: trap of thinking that it just universally does. We've all

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Speaker 1: seen the cartoon image of the depressed person with their

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Speaker 1: own personal rain cloud hovering over their head, right, uh,

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Speaker 1: and so, and it's easy to fall into that trap

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Speaker 1: of say thinking that, well, everyone in Seattle must be

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Speaker 1: depressed because it's raining all the time. Or I really

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Speaker 1: want to boost my mood. I want to move somewhere

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Speaker 1: where the weather is nicer, and therefore my internal weather

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Speaker 1: will be nicer as well. But when you actually analyze it,

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Speaker 1: this doesn't really hold up. No. Matthew Keller, a lead

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Speaker 1: researcher of the meta study at Warm Heart and a

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Speaker 1: Clear Head the Contingent Effects of weather on mood and cognition, says, quote,

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Speaker 1: everyone thinks weather effects mood, But the biggest test of

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Speaker 1: this theory in two thousand. In the year two thousand

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Speaker 1: found no relationships. So we went back and found that

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Speaker 1: there are two important variables, how much time you spend

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Speaker 1: outside and what the season is. If you go from

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Speaker 1: winter to spring and spend enough time outside, there is

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Speaker 1: a noticeable change. So it's this change that's key. This

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Speaker 1: this emergence from the dark into the light, from the

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Speaker 1: cold into the warm, and actually getting out there and

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Speaker 1: experiencing it. That's what can actually make a difference on

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Speaker 1: your cognitive state. Yeah, and it is a certain degree

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Speaker 1: of temperature that will actually make the biggest impact on

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Speaker 1: your state of mind. And we'll talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about Keller's research, but I just wanted to mention

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Speaker 1: that all of this has to do with spring, because

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Speaker 1: a peak mood occurred at sixty seven point four degrees fahrenheiten.

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Speaker 1: This is kind of the goldilocks of temperature and not

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Speaker 1: too cold, not too hot that you see in spring.

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Speaker 1: So when we talk about some of these different aspects

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Speaker 1: of the research, to keep in mind that that's the

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Speaker 1: perfect spring day weather right where you've got the blue

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Speaker 1: skies and um, you know, you're just as comfortable as

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Speaker 1: you can be. It's almost like the metaphor of being

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Speaker 1: in the womb and floating around and in your you know,

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Speaker 1: the edges of your body just melting into everything else

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Speaker 1: around you. Maybe you don't have the exact feeling of

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Speaker 1: that when you go out your front door in that weather,

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Speaker 1: but there is a feeling of comfort. Well yeah, I think,

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Speaker 1: but I think we often do have that that feeling. Again,

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Speaker 1: it comes back to that whole realization, Hey, the weather

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Speaker 1: is nice enough outside. I don't have to turn on

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Speaker 1: the heat. I don't have to turn the air conditioning.

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Speaker 1: I can open a window. Or you walk outside in

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Speaker 1: the spring day and you say, hey, it's nicer outside

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Speaker 1: than it is indoors, which is such an insane thing

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Speaker 1: to say, but but but it's true. And then you

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Speaker 1: feel the edges of your body melting around you, and

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Speaker 1: you think, ah, I felt this before somewhere. All right,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about these studies. There was one in which

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Speaker 1: nineties seven people reported their mood and how much time

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Speaker 1: they spent outside. Then they were asked to remember a

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Speaker 1: series of numbers. They were also given a short favorable

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Speaker 1: description of a fake employee, and then they were given

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Speaker 1: additional unfavorable information about that same person and asked to

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Speaker 1: assess the employee's competence in performance on the days with

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Speaker 1: high pressure, that's the clear, sunny days when you have

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Speaker 1: high barometric pressure. People who spent more than thirty minutes

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Speaker 1: outside saw an increase in memory, mood, and flexible thinking styles.

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Speaker 1: Those who spent the time indoors, though, they saw a decrease.

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Speaker 1: So when they talk about flexible thinking styles, we're talking

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Speaker 1: about a sense of openness. So they were regarding that

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Speaker 1: employee and some of the more unsavory details about that

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Speaker 1: person in a more open minded way and kind of

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Speaker 1: giving them a pass on those days that there was

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Speaker 1: beautiful weather and they were spending a good chunk of

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Speaker 1: it outside. Interesting. Interesting, Now the second experiment that has

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Speaker 1: a D twenty one people spend time outside, of course,

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Speaker 1: or inside on a warm, clear, beautiful day. Have you

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Speaker 1: ever had that experience where you you both have been

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Speaker 1: outside just frolicking, or you've been inside chained to your

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Speaker 1: computer looking longingly outside. Yeah, kind of think. I had

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Speaker 1: one of those days last week where it was inside

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Speaker 1: here the office all day doing stuff, and then I

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Speaker 1: went outside at the end of the day to go

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Speaker 1: home and realize it was beautiful, and I felt this

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Speaker 1: this deep sadness because I knew that one of the

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Speaker 1: few uh nice days that we have in the city

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Speaker 1: was lost to me. Well, that is exactly what happened

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Speaker 1: in this experiment. Of course, people who went outside their

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Speaker 1: moves were lifted. Uh, they felt great, they had some

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Speaker 1: pep in their step. But the people who were changed

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Speaker 1: to their desks and made to stay inside were angry

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Speaker 1: about it. Now, they weren't physically chained in the experiment,

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Speaker 1: it's worth noting just just to be clear. No, there's

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Speaker 1: a rope. There's a rope. Yeah, we don't want it

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Speaker 1: to rub too much, exactly. Yeah. And then the third study,

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Speaker 1: the researchers collected data through a website from three eight

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Speaker 1: seven respondents who lived in various climates, because what they

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Speaker 1: wanted to do here is to try to get out

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Speaker 1: of the northern climates that they are already in and

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Speaker 1: make sure that they had some other representations of climates

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Speaker 1: throughout the world. And they correlated the submissions with the

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Speaker 1: weather in each city for that day, and they found

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Speaker 1: that participants who spent more time outside during the spring

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Speaker 1: but not during any other season had better moods overall.

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Speaker 1: So again, everyone is coming outside everythone is emerging. It's

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Speaker 1: like that that the flower is opening to the warmth

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Speaker 1: of a world, society is is coming alive again. Everyone's

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Speaker 1: creeping outside of the cave. But it turns out there's

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Speaker 1: a dark side to this as well, and to understand it,

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Speaker 1: we have to first back up a little bit to

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Speaker 1: Christmas time. Now. Now, Christmas, the holidays, whatever you want

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Speaker 1: to call them, whatever they are to you, they are

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Speaker 1: essentially the around the darkest times of the winter, when

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Speaker 1: things are at their at their their their blackest, things

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Speaker 1: are at their coldest, And a lot of what's going

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Speaker 1: on there at a deeper level, is about the hope

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Speaker 1: that spring will come again, that if we do right

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Speaker 1: by nature, by the God, by God's by ourselves, whatever,

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Speaker 1: we can survive the rest of this night and emerge

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Speaker 1: into springtime. And there's this myth that has just stayed

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Speaker 1: with us, largely because it's repeated over and over again

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Speaker 1: in the media that suicide rates are hired during the holidays.

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Speaker 1: And it's an easy one to buy, because, yeah, people

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Speaker 1: get down sometimes in the holidays. They can be a

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Speaker 1: little sad. You know, suddenly you're having the holidays and

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Speaker 1: someone that you've lost isn't there with you anymore, or

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Speaker 1: you're you know, you're experiencing some degree of seasonal effective disorder.

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Speaker 1: The world's dark, everything's colder. Maybe that's getting you down

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Speaker 1: as well. But according to the Anneburg Public Policy Center,

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Speaker 1: it's the idea that to suicide rates peaked during the

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Speaker 1: holidays is complete, complete bunk, and the media should stop

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Speaker 1: repeating it and driving home this falsehood. Yeah, Brian Palmer,

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Speaker 1: writing for Sleep magazine, says it's a convenient narrative that

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Speaker 1: would keep picking up lonely people becoming despondent around Christmas time. Um,

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Speaker 1: the real information here is that suicide actually peaks in

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Speaker 1: the spring and summer, and if you start to try

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Speaker 1: to sess out all of the reasons why, it becomes

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Speaker 1: very difficult. Now. Um, when Palmer was writing this article

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Speaker 1: for Sleep magazine about suicide upticks in spring and summer,

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Speaker 1: he went through some various theories about it. But I

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Speaker 1: just wanted to say that there's no one like unified

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Speaker 1: theory here, and a lot of it has to do

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Speaker 1: with that person's particular circumstances, not just because this person

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Speaker 1: happened to work in this kind of job in Uruguay

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Speaker 1: at the time, but we should probably run through it

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Speaker 1: because it is really interesting. The one that seems to

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Speaker 1: during the most with the most truth for me is

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Speaker 1: the is the sociodemographic factor. And this is the idea

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Speaker 1: that during winter, what are you doing. You're surviving the winter.

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Speaker 1: You're kind of hibernating in some way, shape or form.

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Speaker 1: You know, you're you're buckling down, You're you're you're just

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Speaker 1: about get through the holidays, get through the new year.

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Speaker 1: You know, throw in you know, weird work schedules and

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Speaker 1: trips and more time with the family. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: gonna very case to case, obviously, but for the most part,

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Speaker 1: you can say that throughout this this winter you are

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Speaker 1: you're keeping it close. You know, you're shutting off, you're

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Speaker 1: not really dealing with as many people, uh in the

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Speaker 1: outside world. But then when spring comes, everyone's getting out

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Speaker 1: and about uh there, you know, suddenly everyone has new

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Speaker 1: projects that you're launching at work. It's not about just

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Speaker 1: let's get through all the weird works I all the holidays.

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Speaker 1: It's suddenly like, let's have meetings and get things done.

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Speaker 1: Let's start building things together. Oh and then oh and

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Speaker 1: then taxes are here. We have to pay the taxes

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Speaker 1: as well. Uh, Suddenly the socio demographics of the world

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Speaker 1: around you are erupting and coming together, and things that

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Speaker 1: say that, you know, problems in your life that you

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Speaker 1: might have been able to to dodge by hiding from them,

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Speaker 1: Suddenly you're not able to hide from them as well,

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Speaker 1: you know, or plans that you had made, Uh suddenly

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Speaker 1: have to come together in a different way. I mean

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Speaker 1: it's you're suddenly exposed to more frustration, more conflict in

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Speaker 1: your life, and if, if, and and that can spill

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Speaker 1: over into self destruction. Yeah. A good example of this

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Speaker 1: is the paper is Occupation Relevant and Suicide and this

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Speaker 1: studied suicides in Finland during the years of nine and

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Speaker 1: what it found is that the spring suicide peak is

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Speaker 1: more pronounced among people employed on farms or in factories,

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Speaker 1: who experience greater seasonal variation in the intense of work

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Speaker 1: and social interactions. In addition, developing countries with a higher

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Speaker 1: proportion of agriculture workers see more seasonal changes in the

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Speaker 1: stuff in the suicide rate than you developed countries, and

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Speaker 1: Palmer says that the magnitude of seasonal changes in suicide

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Speaker 1: rate is more than ten times higher in Uruguay, for example,

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Speaker 1: than in Belgium, because suddenly the pressure is on let's

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Speaker 1: get it, let's grow things. We have to plant things.

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Speaker 1: The cycle is is is heating up at the farm,

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Speaker 1: and therefore the pressure is on you. There's more frustration

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Speaker 1: and and that can spill over. Now there are just

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Speaker 1: there's a raft of controversial studies linking something like allergens

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Speaker 1: or even temperature spikes to suicide rates. But there's really

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Speaker 1: no one weather pattern or one variable that you can

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Speaker 1: point to when it comes to those studies. So I'm

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Speaker 1: not going to spend much time other than to just

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Speaker 1: mentioned that they are out there. Yeah, because you start

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00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,120
Speaker 1: breaking and they're like with a lot of things, especially

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Speaker 1: things that involve human behavior and its interaction with other factors.

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Speaker 1: You start looking for that unified theory and things start

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Speaker 1: breaking down. Uh, there's no there's no single argument for

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Speaker 1: why people are going to you know, be more suicide

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Speaker 1: prone in the spring or summer that matches up with

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Speaker 1: one particular variable, right, Because there's another subset of people

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Speaker 1: who have committed suicide and they happen to be cubical workers,

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Speaker 1: and this their uptick is in September, So you can't

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Speaker 1: just say across the board it's spring and summer and

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Speaker 1: it's just agriculture workers. There's all sorts of factors going

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Speaker 1: on here. But I think the real point here is

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Speaker 1: that the darkest days for humans is not you know,

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Speaker 1: in December and the holidays. This it's just this myth

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Speaker 1: that we perpetuate that this idea of moods and chemicals

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Speaker 1: that create our moods are far more nuanced than just

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Speaker 1: saying boom, this is what happens. Yeah. Spring is about

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Speaker 1: the world coming to life again, the world that you

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Speaker 1: live in, and that can be a really happy thing,

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Speaker 1: that can also be a really depressing thing, are very

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Speaker 1: RESTful thing. Yeah, So it depends on your individual circumstance

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Speaker 1: really in a number of ways. So Robert, now that

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Speaker 1: you know about the International Pillow Fight that we've got

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Speaker 1: a couple of days to prepare here, will you be participating? No,

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Speaker 1: because I'd probably have to bring my son there and

429
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:20,920
Speaker 1: I don't really want him to see a bunch of

430
00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:25,480
Speaker 1: grown people hitting each other with pillows and sleeping. No.

431
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:31,119
Speaker 1: Pillows are for expressing your love and your angst. And um,

432
00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:33,200
Speaker 1: the fact that he's as you said, that we we

433
00:23:33,359 --> 00:23:36,800
Speaker 1: uh we survived it, We survived the wintertime. Let's get

434
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,720
Speaker 1: out there and just whack each other silly. Okay, Well

435
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:42,720
Speaker 1: maybe next year, maybe next year. All right, that's not

436
00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:46,240
Speaker 1: gonna happen. You're just saying that, we'll see, we'll see.

437
00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 1: All right. Uh, we should do a little bit of mail. Yeah,

438
00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:52,679
Speaker 1: let me call over the robot and let's see what

439
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:56,879
Speaker 1: we have, all right. This one comes to us from Adam.

440
00:23:56,920 --> 00:23:59,240
Speaker 1: Adam says, Hi, Robert and Julie just found your podcast

441
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:02,680
Speaker 1: on my long road trip from Texas, Illinois, and heard

442
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:04,960
Speaker 1: your show a musical time machine for the brain, and

443
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,760
Speaker 1: wanted to share my driving music with you. Pretty much

444
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:12,159
Speaker 1: any track by the techno band The Prodigy, but namely Breathe. Also.

445
00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:16,439
Speaker 1: Another favorite for adournaline pumping, fist fighting, body moving, head bopping,

446
00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:19,760
Speaker 1: vampire sucking nights in a Cede, Russian nightclub would be

447
00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:23,639
Speaker 1: the track Confusion by New World, featured in the Wesley

448
00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:28,720
Speaker 1: Snipe vampire Hunter movie Blade. Thanks for asking, Adam of Texas.

449
00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:31,080
Speaker 1: This one comes to us from Lena. Lena says, Dear

450
00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:33,760
Speaker 1: Robert and Julie, I really enjoyed your podcast, The Illusion

451
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:36,679
Speaker 1: of Continuity because I'm in ap psychology and we just

452
00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:40,160
Speaker 1: finished our unit on sensory and perception. It was incredibly interesting.

453
00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:42,679
Speaker 1: I had never realized the extent to which my senses

454
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,639
Speaker 1: cannot be trusted. However, the brain is also extraordinary and

455
00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:48,320
Speaker 1: its ability to fill in gaps, filter out on necessary stimuli,

456
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:51,119
Speaker 1: and make sense of complex images. It seems like the

457
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:54,360
Speaker 1: more science figures out the human brain, the more questions

458
00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:56,239
Speaker 1: one could ask about it. The dance and Spider Man

459
00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:58,119
Speaker 1: gift really cracked me up by the way. I played

460
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:01,320
Speaker 1: K pop and some other songs and it worked, although

461
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:05,159
Speaker 1: I could see some discontinuity, but maybe that was my

462
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:07,679
Speaker 1: years of music lessons kicking in. I love your podcast.

463
00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:10,480
Speaker 1: Keep up the amazing work, Lena. All right, we've got

464
00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:13,399
Speaker 1: one more here, and this is from Iona and in

465
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:15,840
Speaker 1: the subject line it says this one has a really

466
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:19,560
Speaker 1: cute cat gift. And indeed she did attach a gift

467
00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:22,639
Speaker 1: of a cat on hind length hind legs a kittie.

468
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 1: Was that a trick that she played on this to

469
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:27,040
Speaker 1: to try and make sure that we read this particular

470
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 1: email and I didn't get lost. I don't know, but

471
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:32,199
Speaker 1: it worked. If it was, it worked, um, says Hi.

472
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:34,320
Speaker 1: Robert and Julian needed to let you know that Stuff

473
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:36,240
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind is my favorite podcast and makes

474
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 1: my daily commute on the Northern Line, known to Londoners

475
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:42,879
Speaker 1: as the most oppressing of all the two blinds, bearable.

476
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:45,560
Speaker 1: So thank you so much for all your hard work.

477
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:48,399
Speaker 1: Your podcast about the Night Janitor reminded me of the

478
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,680
Speaker 1: short story The Sweeper of Dreams by Neil Diamond, which

479
00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:54,280
Speaker 1: runs with the same analogy. It's super short, so it

480
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:56,119
Speaker 1: doesn't take long to read, and you can see it

481
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:59,080
Speaker 1: here or there's a video of Diamond reading it. Allowed

482
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:01,720
Speaker 1: I managed to listen to your musical time Machine for

483
00:26:01,760 --> 00:26:03,720
Speaker 1: the Brain podcast. On the same day I read this

484
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,480
Speaker 1: essay on why we love repetition and music by the

485
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:10,359
Speaker 1: director of the Music Cognition Lab at Arkansas University, and yes,

486
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:14,240
Speaker 1: my mind was blown. This one isn't a super short read,

487
00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:17,480
Speaker 1: but it is really interesting and even has audio clips

488
00:26:17,480 --> 00:26:20,480
Speaker 1: where you can see how looping words make them seem

489
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:23,119
Speaker 1: as if they are being sung. That's about it again,

490
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:26,800
Speaker 1: Please never stop. Thank you Iona. Awesome. It's always comforting

491
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:28,919
Speaker 1: to know that people are listening to us on the

492
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:32,840
Speaker 1: Tube Because I I have a thing for trains and

493
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:36,560
Speaker 1: underground trains especially so I fondly remember all the time

494
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:38,919
Speaker 1: I got to spend on the London too when I visited,

495
00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:42,119
Speaker 1: so I I love the idea that we're reaching people

496
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:45,800
Speaker 1: in those underground spaces. I feel like you need to

497
00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:49,240
Speaker 1: hook up with Robin Hitchcock someday. Yeah, the the the

498
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:52,680
Speaker 1: singer songwriter, because he has an obsession with trains and uh.

499
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:54,680
Speaker 1: In fact, he has an album called I Often Dream

500
00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: of Trains. I will have to check that out, yes,

501
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 1: but I do love that she was reading that essay

502
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,399
Speaker 1: at the same time that she was checking out the

503
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: podcast about music and how it works on the brain.

504
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 1: Very cool. One final bed here, I do want to

505
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:11,160
Speaker 1: point out we uh we We did the episode on

506
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 1: on the Verry Wide Effect and why Barry White's voice

507
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:16,960
Speaker 1: resonated with us so much, and we asked the question,

508
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:18,800
Speaker 1: who is the new Berry White? Are there any voices

509
00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:21,600
Speaker 1: out there in the current world that are filling the

510
00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:24,920
Speaker 1: same space you know, for us that are it's able

511
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: to be you know, alluring but also safe. Uh. Some

512
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:30,840
Speaker 1: people pointed out Neil de grass Tyson, which is an

513
00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:34,200
Speaker 1: interesting choice. I love Neil de grass Tyson. I think

514
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,400
Speaker 1: sometimes when he's an argumentative mode, which is awesome because

515
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:39,640
Speaker 1: there are things that Neil de grass and Tyson needs

516
00:27:39,640 --> 00:27:42,040
Speaker 1: to argue about, and only he can argue about them.

517
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,760
Speaker 1: Especially only he can. Yeah, only he can. He has

518
00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:47,719
Speaker 1: the probaged position of doing it and has all the

519
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 1: tools to win the argument. But you know, maybe I

520
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:53,400
Speaker 1: think maybe he's a little less Verry White in that

521
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:57,119
Speaker 1: particular mode. Wow, I was just thinking the opposite. I

522
00:27:57,200 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 1: was thinking in Cosmos he's a little too soft, he's

523
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:03,680
Speaker 1: a little too reassuring, and that when he's fired up,

524
00:28:03,960 --> 00:28:10,320
Speaker 1: you get a little bit more of the kind of breathiness. Well,

525
00:28:10,320 --> 00:28:11,800
Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, I guess it comes down to what

526
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:14,119
Speaker 1: do you want out of your Neil deGrasse. Tyson's kind

527
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 1: of like two two flavors there. Other people mentioned Bennedict Cumberbatch, who,

528
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:21,639
Speaker 1: of course, uh this in addition to looking kind of

529
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:24,200
Speaker 1: like an honor, which we discussed in an upcoming video,

530
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 1: also has a phenomenal voice that's nice and deep and

531
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 1: British and uh, you can't help but to fall under

532
00:28:31,119 --> 00:28:34,240
Speaker 1: its spell. So I think that's a decent suggestion as well,

533
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:37,200
Speaker 1: if you want to fall under our spell a little

534
00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:41,360
Speaker 1: bit more. I'm kidding, I'm winking. I'm nudging. Uh, there

535
00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:43,600
Speaker 1: are a couple of places you can do that. You

536
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:46,160
Speaker 1: can go to Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Yes,

537
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:48,400
Speaker 1: that's the mothership. That's where you'll find all our videos,

538
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:51,040
Speaker 1: our podcast, all our blog links out to our social

539
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 1: media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Google Plus, as well

540
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:58,160
Speaker 1: as our YouTube channel, which you'll find on YouTube as

541
00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:01,600
Speaker 1: mind Stuff Show. UH be gonna keep an eye on that.

542
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:05,040
Speaker 1: We have some some cool video products coming out, including

543
00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 1: a series that uh that I just shot titled Monster

544
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:12,600
Speaker 1: Science that's going to have a nice sort of daytime

545
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 1: horror monstery vibe while also remaining very steeped in real

546
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:21,960
Speaker 1: world biology. Indeed, and in the meantime, if you would

547
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:24,040
Speaker 1: like to send us a note, please do so, and

548
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:26,560
Speaker 1: you can do that that Blow the Mind at Discovery

549
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:33,520
Speaker 1: dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics.

550
00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:41,840
Speaker 1: Say isn't how stuff Works? Dot com