WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Winter People, Part 2 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:07.640 Hey, you welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind. My 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:10.559 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:12.520 Time to go into the Vault. This time we'll be 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:15.560 picking up with part two of last week's Vault episode, 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:21.400 The Winter People. Part two. This originally aired December, and uh, 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:23.279 here it is for you again in case he didn't 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:29.080 catch you last time. Welcome to Stuff to Blow your 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:38.360 Mind from how stuff dot com. Hey you welcome to 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.400 stuff to blow your mind. My name is Robert Lamb 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:42.800 and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with part two 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.239 of our discussion of the Winter People, the way in 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:49.760 which animal existence and especially human existence is seasonally bifurcated, 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:52.720 and the way the seasons really warp in command who 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.400 and what we are now. Last time, we talked about 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.600 traditional cultural beliefs and practices around wintertime. Uh so, we 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:03.280 talked the amazing winter ceremonials of the Quakwa Kawak people 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.559 of the Pacific Northwest and North America. But we wanted 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.720 to talk about some other cultural beliefs about wintertime changes 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.039 to the human being. Yeah, we were kind of casting 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.560 about for something that if it felt felt appropriate to 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:19.880 to bring up because there are no shortage of winter traditions. 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.800 But we we lead with such a fantastic example in 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:26.000 the first episode, it felt intimidating to try and come 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.240 up with something of of equal weight. Now, one thing 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:30.399 you could bring up is, of course, the traditions like 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.360 the huga. This became very popular, was it? Last year? 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:35.640 The year before? There were suddenly all these articles on 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:39.880 the internet about uh huga and all these related concepts, 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:44.319 especially in you know, uh northern polar Uh, not always polar, 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.600 but northern types of countries and cultures where they're they 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:51.120 have special words for getting cozy when it's really cold 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.240 and bad weather outside. Yeah, this is interesting because I 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.440 mean obviously here in the States people do like to 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:01.960 to snug up and they be binge, watched some Netflix 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.240 or what have you. I have a little hot cocoa 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.560 during the colder months or something fulfilling about that. I 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:11.040 hear they eat pumpkin pie. Have you heard about this 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:16.120 the Americans? Like? Okay, I mean I didn't know there 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:18.440 are songs about it. I assume it's true. Which song? 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.280 Which song is about eating pumpkin There's something about you 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:24.959 throw a log on the fire and coffee and pumpkin pie. 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.799 I'm vaguely connecting to something from another life, all right though. 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:30.800 I just have a lot of questions for people who 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:35.040 eat pumpkin pie outside of established holidays. Yeah, which you're 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.240 the ones is Thanksgiving and when, Well, you can have 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:40.160 it for Christmas, but I mean you kind of been 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.280 in the rules, right, But then mostly it is a 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:45.840 Thanksgiving pie. It's a delicious Thanksgiving pie, but it's I 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.400 don't know, I wouldn't feel comfortable eating it. Fill the 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:50.679 time of the year. Filling from a can, crust from 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:52.840 a can, well, yeah, you have to use the filling 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:57.440 from the can because it doesn't matter, because the because 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.040 ultimately the pumpkin is just a vehicle for the of 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.000 the nutmeg and the spice flavoring. Yeah, and the sugar. Yeah. 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:07.280 But no, despite all the coziness traditions, some cultures apparently 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:11.680 have this special word for the coziness seeking tradition, and 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.680 other cultures don't really. I mean, English, as far as 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.120 I know, doesn't have a word like hugo, and I 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.040 think that's why it suddenly became so popular in the 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:22.399 English speaking part of the Internet. Yeah, and of course 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.120 it's important to realize that coziness during the winter months 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.880 is is something of a luxury. Uh and uh. This 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:33.600 led me to seek out a possible example in a 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.200 wonderful book that I hadn't looked at in many years, 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:41.560 And that's Barry Lopez's six book Arctic Dreams, Imagination and 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.560 Desire in a Northern Landscape which is just which is 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.680 just full of beautiful descriptions of life in the far North. 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.440 For instance, he shares the following just about the flow 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:56.240 of seasons in general. Quote in summer, in the sometimes 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.880 extravagant light of a July day, one's thoughts are not 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.880 of growth of heading wheat and yellowing peaches, but of suspension, 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.440 as if life had escaped the bounds of earth in 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:11.080 this country, which lacks the prolonged moderations between winter and 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:14.480 summer that we anticipate as balmy April mornings and dry 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.640 Indian summer afternoons. In this two season country, things grow 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:22.400 and die, as they do everywhere, but they are more 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:26.479 deeply than living things anywhere else, seasonal creatures. And he 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:29.160 goes on later in the book to to bring up 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:34.680 this concept of the polar Eskimo people that is called 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.880 purlar or neck. He says, quote winter darkness brings on 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:43.440 the extreme winter depression the polar Eskimo called parlor neck. 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:47.880 According to the anthropologist Gene the Mallari, the word means 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.640 to feel quote the weight of life, to look ahead 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.240 to all that must be accomplished, and to retreat to 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.839 the present, feeling defeated, weary, before starting a core of 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:01.120 anger and miserable sadness. It is to be sick of life, 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:05.960 a man named Amina told Millari. The victim tears fitfully 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.920 at his clothes. A woman begins aimlessly slashing at things 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.600 in the igloo with their knife. A person runs half 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:14.919 naked into the bitter, freezing night, screaming out at the village, 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.440 eating the poop of dogs. Eventually the person is calmed 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.599 by others in the family with great compassion and helped 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:25.039 to sleep. Pro Laura neck winter. And I have to 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.080 say he did not say poop. He used a stronger 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.800 curse word that we can't say on the show. But 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:33.560 I felt compelled to self at it there So, as 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.240 Lopez describes it, does it seem like the idea is 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:39.960 that sort of the farther you go up north or 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:42.320 I guess toward either of the poles, but especially because 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.520 you know they're more people are more concentrated towards the 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.000 North Pole than in like Antarctica, that sort of the 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:53.800 weight of the seasons becomes more unbearable. Yeah, that that 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:55.800 seems to be the point he's he's making here, and 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:57.320 it just has to do with the fact that you 0:05:57.440 --> 0:05:59.760 essentially have two seasons, one of life and one of death, 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.440 one of one of hardship and one of well, I 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:07.360 guess less hardship. Uh. It's it's certainly an impressive concept. 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.760 And uh. It again brings to mind accounts of say 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:13.640 that the alleged wind to go madness that you uh, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:19.920 you hear about in uh in northern native populations. However, 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.200 we have to point out here that not everyone is 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.400 on board with this being a true part of pre 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:29.640 colonial traditions and beliefs among Native peoples of North America. Yeah. 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:33.920 According to Canadian scholar who uh and scholar who specializes 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.760 in the study of First Nations people, John Steckley, in 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.680 his book White Lies about the Inuit, he says this 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:44.920 idea of Arctic hysteria is backed up by case studies, 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.360 but it was most frequently touted in the nineteen sixties 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:52.720 through the eighties by anthropologists such as Jean Mallari and others, 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.400 and he points out that historian Lyle Dick suspects, just 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:01.039 as Stickley himself concurs, that it's quote more likely the 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:05.440 creature of the white Inuit power imbalance embodied in specific 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:10.240 contexts unquote, such as forced risky explorations during the winter, 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.880 So forcing the native peoples to, among other things, take 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:18.400 you out into hostile winter conditions when their their normal 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:23.800 pattern of behaviors would have limited such risky measures. So 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:27.200 that makes sense to me. And it has also been 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:31.640 suggested that there's a possible physical explanations for this kind 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:35.480 of Arctic madness. Can be found in hyper vitaminosis ah, 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.240 such as when you consume a polar bear liver exactly, 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:40.480 and you can and it's something you can also pick. 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:42.480 It's most famous for the polar bear liver. We've talked 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.640 about it before in the show as far as polar 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.680 bear liver consumption is concerned, But you can also get 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.880 it from consuming a number of different um uh hunted 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:57.640 animals in these regions, So that's one possibility as well. 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.000 So I think the take home here is that as 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:04.400 fascinating as the concept is, and certainly as beautifully as 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:09.000 Lopez wrote about it uh in an Arctic Dreams, it 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:13.960 seems like it may be a situation that is, it 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:19.120 is somewhat complicated by the impact of colonial Western society 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.600 upon the traditions of the native people's. Well, it certainly 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.880 illustrates the way in which our reactions to the seasons 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:30.960 are both sort of endogenous and exogenous, like that they 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:35.160 come from both inherent factors in in the climate and 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:39.000 in uh, you know, physical constraints around us that arrive 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:41.440 when the winter months set in, but they're also heavily 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.600 tempered by what cultural pressures were having to deal with. 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:47.480 So like a society of abundance is probably going to 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.839 have very different cultural ways of dealing with winter than 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:54.319 a society of scarcity would, and all kinds of cultural 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.079 factors like that would play in. Certainly, of course, if 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.880 you're you know, being colonized, that's definitely going to a 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:02.640 act what a season of hardship means for you. Indeed, 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.400 all right, well, we need to take a quick break, 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:06.240 and then when we come back we will talk more 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:11.880 about winter changes in winter adaptations thank you. Thank Alright, 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.680 we're back. Okay, So, Robert, we have discussed how we 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.719 are not constant beings but sort of like seasonal shape shifters. 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:25.040 There are so many ways that culturally, that psychologically, that metabolically, 0:09:25.320 --> 0:09:28.640 our bodies respond to the changes in the seasons in 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:30.840 a way that it might be hard to beat out 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:33.040 of us, even though we've got all these nice climate 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:36.800 controlled indoor places to dwell. Now our bodies are surfing 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:38.920 the cycles of time. Now, there is one way in 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.160 which the changes of the seasons affect us much more 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:46.400 directly and immediately, and that's by being cold. Apart from, 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.160 you know, the vitamin D deficiency you might get from 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:51.880 shorter days, and the way it might affect the way 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.440 you eat and affect your your metabolism and even affect 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.600 your behavior and your dating and your desire for meaning 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:03.360 and things like that, it also is just freezing outside. Now. 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:05.880 It's no secret that exposure to cold can hurt or 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:10.240 kill you. But did you ever wonder why they are? Like? 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.080 Several ways you can answer this question. One is pretty 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:17.760 straightforward and mechanical. It's that the body has mostly liquid content. 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:20.680 I like to think of that this sometimes like whenever 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.000 you're feeling a little bit down on yourself, you just 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.720 think like, hey, I'm a bag of fluids doing okay 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.360 for a bag of fluids. Yeah, and if you if 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:32.200 you were to freeze me solid, then a single Jean 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:35.400 Claude van Damn kick could shatter you. And well, in fact, 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:38.160 if you were to freeze me solid, just the act 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.240 of freezing me solid would sort of shatter me because 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.320 when liquid freezes, it can form ice crystals, which cause 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:46.920 damage to the body's tissues, to the cells, to the 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.240 cell membranes. But here's another way to think about it. 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:55.680 Animal life is characterized by two main physical characteristics. I'd 0:10:55.679 --> 0:11:00.760 say motion and chemical reactions, and cold slows down both 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.120 of these things. So cooks out there. I wonder if 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:07.200 you ever tried to, like mash up some spinach art 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:11.559 to choke dip with a cold block of cream cheese, Robert, 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.520 do you have any comparable experience? Uh? No, I do not. 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:18.520 It's impossible. I means you're just like work in your arm, 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:20.240 and you've gotta you've gotta be some kind of like 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.520 hydraulic press type creature in order to achieve it. A 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:25.600 similar thing would be if you're into baking, and you 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.800 ever tried to like whip something with cold butter, it's 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:32.199 just a bad idea. And likewise, if if you've ever 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:35.400 tried to trigger a chemical reaction like lighting a fire 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:39.440 when it's freezing cold outside, not so easy. The body 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.560 needs to be warm, so it's mechanical motions are kind 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.840 of lubricated and squishy, and it also needs to be warm, 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.760 so it's chemical reactions have enough energy to take place. 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.439 But not all bodies are like this. There are creatures 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:56.680 in this world that can literally freeze almost entirely solid 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.920 and thaw out and survive. So I want to mention 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:06.160 one example, the wood frog Lithabades sylvaticus, found throughout the 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.720 forests of Canada and the northern United States. So this 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.280 is a frog that survives the harsh winter of northern 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:17.920 Canadian forests. How would it do that? Well, what you'll 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:20.240 notice it does is that when the cold north winds 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:24.559 set in sometime around September, these frogs crawl down and 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.679 nestle in some dead plant matter like some leaf litter, 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:32.680 dead grass, and then they literally freeze almost entirely solid. 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.720 About two thirds of their bodies water content turns into ice. 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.240 And even temperatures as low as zero degrease fahrenheit won't 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:43.000 kill them. And then when warm weather comes back, they 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:46.280 thaw out, they hop away unharmed. Uh. Speaking to the 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.640 l A Times, the herpetologist Don Larson said, quote, on 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:54.280 an organismal level, they are essentially dead. The individual cells 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.559 are still functioning, but they have no way to communicate 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.640 with each other. So you might be ondering how do 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:05.840 they do this? Well, the body essentially manufactures cryoprotectant chemicals. 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.840 It looks like glycogen in the frog's liver gets converted 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.120 into glucose, which keeps the frog's individual cells alive throughout 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:17.079 the freeze. And then also uriah, which is the nitrogen 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.520 based crystalline compound you excrete in your urine, might also 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:22.760 play a role. Uria came up a little bit earlier 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:26.439 when we were talking about cold protection. But Larson points 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.600 out this thing that's not known, but it's an interesting possibility. 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.680 He points out that freezing alive might not just be 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:36.680 a survival mechanism, but that could actually be beneficial to 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.440 an animal that wanted to rid itself of parasites. Oh 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.440 this is so good. I mean, we we we see 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:47.560 a similar cases. For instance, where if you have frozen fish, 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.560 you know, you worry less about there being parasites in 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:54.000 the fish. And also if you're worried about dust mites 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.440 on one of your child's prize stuffed animals, you stick 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.080 it in the freezer overnight and that takes care of 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:02.000 the mite. So all the dust mights go to your 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.640 frozen shrimp. Yeah. Well, you know what's the difference between 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:12.800 a mite and a shrimp, really shrimp hugettical bugs. So yes, 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.440 you've got the wood frog. But we've had another freezing champion, 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.040 even more hardy that I want to mention, the red 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:22.880 flat bark beetle, which is kuka just clavipies. Usually we 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.720 would find them living under loose bark in North American 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.640 deciduous trees. And I found a report from the University 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:32.760 of Alaska, Fairbanks that biologists Todd's formo quote cooled the 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:36.600 beetles in a lab to minus seventy degrees celsius, which 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.880 is minus ninety four degrees fahrenheit, and they did not die. 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.960 And then there was another experiment subsequently in California. They 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.680 could they found they could lower the temperature of these 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:51.160 beetles to minus a hundred and fifty degrees celsius, which 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.800 is minus two hundred and thirty eight degrees fahrenheit, colder 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.800 than any natural temperature on Earth. Without freezing the beetles. 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:02.720 That's incredib Now, obviously our bodies are not like this. 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:06.080 We do not have such strong crier protectant mechanisms, and 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:09.640 freezing will definitely injure or kill us. Direct exposure of 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:12.480 body parts to cold weather can lead to frostbite, which 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.080 has a simple explanation and a more complex explanation. The 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.760 simple version is just that frost bite is when body 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.440 tissues freeze. The more complex one is a little bit chemical. 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:24.960 It's when ice crystals form in the body tissues. It 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:29.560 dehydrates cells, causes damage to sell membranes. Essentially, you don't 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.440 want to let your outer body parts freeze because there's 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:34.400 sort of the point of no return there. They don't 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:37.200 come back. Yeah. I feel like most of us have 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:43.000 probably read various accounts of explorers, adventurers or refugees and 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:46.880 in really chilling environments and accounts of frostbite where you 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:50.800 realize that is a it is a terrible thing to 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:54.600 have to experience. Yeah, there's something especially disturbing about it 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.040 because it's almost like, um, I don't know, just having 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.000 like it's like necrosis. You know, it's like there's a 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:03.440 part of the body that is dying or is dead, 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:05.720 but it's still attached to you. It's not like it's 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.320 been chopped off. It's just it's still there and it's 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.960 not working for you. Yeah, it is in D and 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:15.880 D terms to chronic damage. Yeah. Uh so, we obviously 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:17.800 are not as hardy as bark beetles, but we do 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.640 have adaptive mechanisms. And you'll see the first signs of 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.120 the human body reacting to cold weather really just within 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:27.040 a few seconds of exposure to sub thermo neutral temperatures. 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:30.040 So our skin has these thermo receptors and the detect 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.640 both absolute and relative temperature differences, and they let us 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:35.760 know if the environment is too hot or too cold. 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:40.080 So when the body detects cold, it begins to shunt 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.760 blood away from the extremities. You you probably feel some 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.560 sensation of this and kind of you know, the numbness 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:49.440 and all that when the blood is being drawn away 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:51.800 from the skin and away from the arms and legs 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.400 to keep it closer to the vital organs like the 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.160 heart and the lungs. This is essentially a choice to 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:59.920 sacrifice the outer skin and use it as a layer 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.960 of insulation. By keeping the blood away from the outside, 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.800 the blood stays warmer. Another defense mechanism is runny nose. 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:11.080 You ever wonder, like why your nose runs in the cold? Uh? So, 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:13.600 cold air tends to be very dry and of course 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:16.760 very cold, and since you're constantly pulling that dry air 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:21.160 in through the nose, when you breathe, it dries out 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:25.200 the exposed surfaces within the nasal cavity and the nasal cavity, 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:27.600 one of the things it does when you breathe through 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:29.720 it is it warms the air on the way down 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.320 to your lungs. So, if you're drawing in this really dry, 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.919 cold air that is not being appropriately warmed inside the 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:40.680 nose by your warm, nice mucous layers in there and 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:43.400 drying out the inside of the nose, the body tries 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.439 to compensate, and so what it does is it moisturizes 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:50.800 these passages by secreting mucous fluid, leading to cold induced 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.720 rhine a rhea, the diarrhea of the nose. Yeah, I 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:59.560 spent a few years in my childhood in Roddington, Newfoundland, Canada, 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.280 so we had pretty intense winters up there. Uh so 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:05.560 I have on one hand, I have these really pleasant 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:09.680 memories of scaling giants snow banks and tunneling through them. 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:12.080 But I also have these persistent memories of of wearing 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.520 a full ski mask that is at once warming but 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:20.240 also just soggy with with snot you know, just just 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:24.280 partially frozen and partially warmed, snot just covering the whole 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:26.760 front of the ski mask. You know. With exertion in 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:29.200 cold weather, one of the risk factors you need to 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.160 watch out for is that your clothes don't become sweat soaked. 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.879 Oh yeah, because then though that sweat is going to 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.240 cool and then you're you're essentially freezing in your own sweat. Yeah, 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.880 no good. So another thing we've all done it shivering. 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.240 It's one of the body's main defense mechanisms against cold. 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:48.639 The purpose seems to be to force your muscles to 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:52.359 generate extra heat. Movement and friction tend to produce heat. 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:54.639 If you doubt this, just rub your hands together for 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.800 ten seconds. You'll feel them warm up. And so the 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:01.040 shivering is the body's way of enlisting your muscle tissues 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.800 is a kind of emergency internal space heater, forcing them 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:08.160 to rapidly contract and rhythmic patterns all over the body 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.439 and generate extra heat to keep your vital organs and 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.640 blood warm. Another adaptation that seems to not really help 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:19.480 very much anymore goose bumps. Yes, you ever wonder why, Like, 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:21.800 what's the point? It almost feels like when you get 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.600 goose bumps, the bumps are coming up on your skin, 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.680 which would seem to increase the surface area of your skin, 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:31.480 which would make you get cold even faster. Well, and 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:34.320 then also it would seem to move body hair away 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.040 from the body. Yeah, it was It's like, oh well, 0:19:37.200 --> 0:19:41.080 now this protective layer of you know, barely visible arm 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.560 hair is not even touching my arm anymore. But no, 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:47.440 goose bumps are believed to be a vestigial trait from 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.639 our recent ancestors who had much more body hair than us, 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.000 so when they got cold, they could raise the hairs 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:56.000 on their skin to become extra fluffy and insulated. And 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:59.960 it's true that actually lower density things are better insulated. 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.719 's right? You notice that, like when you put insulation 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.040 in the walls in your house. It's not like some 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:09.000 tightly packed metal or would kind of thing. It's this loose, 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:14.119 fluffy stuff because it conducts heat less well, and so 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:16.679 that's essentially what your body is trying to do. It 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.040 remembers a time when you your ancestors had much more hair, 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:23.639 and it's trying to fluff it up to become less 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:27.360 conductive of heat and to insulate skin better from the cold. Now, 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:29.440 of course we don't have much of that hair anymore, 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.040 but we still have this reaction. So we get the bumps, 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:35.439 but without the insulation. Here's the seasonal fact. I know 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.040 you have heard what time of year do people commit 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:42.160 suicide the most? It's winter, right, Yeah, well I believe 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.119 that is the That is sort of the common idea 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:47.400 that's out there. Yeah, I mean it sounds very truthy. 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.399 Yeah yeah, I mean we it's it's it kind of 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:53.200 goes back to the idea of arctic madness. Right. It 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:55.919 feels appropriate like it gets a little cold here in 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.520 Atlanta and we start thinking, oh, this this weather is 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.399 driving me crazy. It's it's so it's it's depressing me, 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.760 or it's making me behave radically, it makes me want 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:07.199 to just shut myself up in my home and not 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.119 encounter the outside world. Again. Yeah, it makes your mind 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:13.440 connect naturally to all kinds of anecdotes that you have within, 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:15.800 you know, some part of your long term memory, stories 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:18.639 about what it's like to be in the in the 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:23.800 Antarctic research stations, or or these stories about parlernarek Um. 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.879 But yeah, it turns out that this very truthy sounding 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:29.560 fact that more people commit suicide in the winter is 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:33.159 not in fact a fact. It is a myth and 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:36.240 yearly suicide rates do not generally peak in the winter, 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:39.399 but they do appear to have a seasonal peak, and 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:42.520 it's not in the winter, it's in spring and early summer. 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:46.360 So how much more suicide is there in the spring, Well, 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:50.800 it varies a lot between societies. But according to Fotus Papadopoulos, 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:54.679 a professor of psychiatry at Uppsala University in Sweden, quote, 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:57.399 if we take winter as a baseline, there is a 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:01.760 twenty to sixty higher suicide side rate during spring. That's 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:04.119 a pretty big difference. I mean, that doesn't sound like noise. 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:07.160 That sounds like a real effect. Yeah, I mean it. 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:12.000 I'm hesitant to try and make too much sense out 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:15.639 of it, you know, but it does lend itself to 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:19.040 interpretations of Right, if the winter is about survival, then 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:20.800 what happens when you get to the other side of 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:24.119 that survival? It's like like managing to cross a rickety 0:22:24.160 --> 0:22:26.760 bridge and you relieve that you made it across that 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:29.600 bridge without plummeting into the abyss. But here you are 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:32.080 on the other side, and you have how many more 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:36.200 leads to walk? You know? Um, it's I can imagine 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.720 the other hardships of life kind of opening up again 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:44.240 for you in a new and perhaps more profound way. Yeah, 0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:47.920 I can see that too. Now, there have been scientific 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:51.240