Speaker 1: Guess what, Mango, what's that? Well, so, I know I've
Speaker 1: told you about this before, but when I was six
Speaker 1: or seven, I used to sneak into my sister's room
Speaker 1: and listen to her latest albums on her fancy double
Speaker 1: cassette playing Boom boss It. I have told you about
Speaker 1: this definitely, and she was in high school at the time,
Speaker 1: so I was introduced to all the important stuff this way.
Speaker 1: It was Michael Jackson's Thriller. I think that was my
Speaker 1: favorite that we did come out a few years earlier.
Speaker 1: We were talking nineteen eighties six and some of the
Speaker 1: biggest hits there was Madonna's Papa Don't Preach, Janet Jackson's
Speaker 1: what Have You Done for Me Lately? Bon Jovis you
Speaker 1: give love a bad name, Cyndi Lauper's True Colors. I mean,
Speaker 1: the list goes on and on, and you're playing to
Speaker 1: name them all. I'm guessing I could. I could. And
Speaker 1: we're not talking about any of that Lionel Richie stuff
Speaker 1: that I had to listen to in my mom's Toyota Cressida.
Speaker 1: This was the good stuff. That's so much revolutionary music
Speaker 1: at such a young age. I know, I know, well,
Speaker 1: one of them that I haven't mentioned yet is the
Speaker 1: Bengals manic Monday, And if you remember, Susanna Hass was
Speaker 1: clearly frustrated because she was having this dream about Kiss
Speaker 1: Valentino and then her stupid alarm goes off and of
Speaker 1: course it's just another man Monday. I mean, she she
Speaker 1: wished it was Sunday because as as you know, that
Speaker 1: that's her fun day. But no, it was. It was Monday.
Speaker 1: It was Monday. Tragic. I mean, I learned so much
Speaker 1: from my sister's music collection. We might even have to
Speaker 1: do an episode on this at some point, but the
Speaker 1: lesson was clear. She did not like Monday. She wasn't alone.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're obviously days that we learned to like
Speaker 1: and just like pretty much universally. And when one of
Speaker 1: our brilliant researchers, Autumn Whitefield Madrono, asked the question a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, what are the best and worst days
Speaker 1: of the week, I thought, well, I know what the
Speaker 1: Bengals would say, but what does science say? And how
Speaker 1: did the whole seven day week come to be in
Speaker 1: the first place. So these are just a couple of
Speaker 1: the things we're going to talk about today. Hei Their
Speaker 1: podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson,
Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend man guest,
Speaker 1: and on the other side of that soundproof glasses, our
Speaker 1: friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Not today, we're asking the
Speaker 1: question what's the best day of the week, you know,
Speaker 1: according to science? And maybe we'll throw in a few
Speaker 1: opinions here and there as well. Yeah, this one could
Speaker 1: turn into a heated debate. Well, we'll see. But before
Speaker 1: we get started, I wanted to recognize a few winners
Speaker 1: from our Weirdest College Courses episode, you know, where we
Speaker 1: ask listeners to tell us the weirdest college classes they've taken.
Speaker 1: You remember this all right? Here the top three, all
Speaker 1: of whom will be getting Part Time Genius t shirts.
Speaker 1: The first one comes from Alicio Martinez. Uh. The class
Speaker 1: was called Math in Square Dancing. Yeah, I thought this
Speaker 1: is awesome. It's taught at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how anyone hadn't really thought about
Speaker 1: how to combine to universally love things, you know, math
Speaker 1: and square dancing. It's pretty great, all right, I like that,
Speaker 1: So you'll be getting one Alicio. Now Yvonne Jones a
Speaker 1: class called Goldberg's Cannon Making Whoopee at Baits College. This
Speaker 1: is great. It's about all about the lifetime work of
Speaker 1: Whoopee Goldberg. That's such a good class, alright. And then
Speaker 1: the third one from Rachel Shine, a class called snow
Speaker 1: Skiing at Texas A and M. Now, that doesn't seem
Speaker 1: that weird of a class, right, but as she explained,
Speaker 1: there was no snow and there were no mountains or hills.
Speaker 1: It was taught on astro turf and it was usually hot,
Speaker 1: so they wore shirts and T shirts and shorts. Yeah. Great, alright,
Speaker 1: So those are our top three. It's so much fun
Speaker 1: to hear from you guys. Congrats to our winners. Remember
Speaker 1: to keep the interesting facts coming to part time Genius
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com or find us on
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. You can also call our seven fact
Speaker 1: hotline one eight four four pt Genius. All right, let's
Speaker 1: dive in. You know, I think we need to start
Speaker 1: by acknowledging what a strange thing a week is. So
Speaker 1: what do you mean by that? I mean, well, it's
Speaker 1: one of those things that, honestly I hadn't thought that
Speaker 1: much about. Before one of our terrific researchers, Autumn, pointed
Speaker 1: it out. And that's the fact that a week is
Speaker 1: this imperfect human created unit of time that falls in
Speaker 1: between two units of time that nature dictates. So you
Speaker 1: have the day dictated by Earth's rotation on the shorter side,
Speaker 1: and then you've got the month that's roughly dictated by
Speaker 1: the lunar cycle on the longer end. Yeah, it's definitely
Speaker 1: weird and doesn't pretty much the whole world us a
Speaker 1: seven day week now. Yeah, even in places that don't
Speaker 1: use the Gregorian calendar, you find that they're using this too,
Speaker 1: and and it's something that we'll talk about in a bit.
Speaker 1: And that's how contemporary weeks are built around pivotal days.
Speaker 1: And even though you might find the pivotal days being
Speaker 1: different from one society to another, there's still some peak
Speaker 1: that's constant and the rest of the week is built
Speaker 1: around that. Well, we should definitely talk about why the
Speaker 1: world settled on a seven day week, but first can
Speaker 1: we look at why creating a unit of time that
Speaker 1: functions between a day and a month is so problematic?
Speaker 1: I mean, the fact is there's no way to divide
Speaker 1: up that time evenly in a way that it recurs regularly.
Speaker 1: A lunar cycle is twenty nine point five days long,
Speaker 1: meaning that if we made all months thirty days leading
Speaker 1: to you know, ten day weeks, we'd still be off.
Speaker 1: It's just such a strange thing. No matter what you
Speaker 1: propose as a replacement for the seven day week, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be some irregularity. Yeah, and the ten day week
Speaker 1: thing has definitely been tried plenty of times. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was interesting to get a refresh on this during our
Speaker 1: research and to see how earlier societies tried to address
Speaker 1: the irregularities. In some they just solve the issue, kind
Speaker 1: of how we do with leap ears, Like the ancient
Speaker 1: Greeks had these ten day periods and occasionally they just
Speaker 1: be nine days long to make the adjustments. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: at first glance, you think that using a ten day
Speaker 1: or a five day week could more closely pull off
Speaker 1: an even division of the lunar month, you know, more
Speaker 1: so than our seven day weeks. And and that's true,
Speaker 1: but then you have another problem. Oh yeah, this is fascinating.
Speaker 1: You're talking about temporal regularity. Yeah, exactly, so. Evianta Zerobabel
Speaker 1: he's the author of a book called The Seven Day Circle,
Speaker 1: and he talks about how temporal regularity is such an
Speaker 1: important part of the development of human race. And as
Speaker 1: he puts it, quote, imagine, for example, having to cancel
Speaker 1: regular Sunday family gatherings or Tuesday classes every month or
Speaker 1: so due to the lack of a Sunday or a
Speaker 1: Tuesday on that particular week. I guess it's kind of
Speaker 1: similar to what leaplings have to deal with, you know,
Speaker 1: those people who are born on February twenty nine, except
Speaker 1: it would happen far more regularly, and it also be
Speaker 1: so much more inconvenient. Oh definitely. I mean, imagine how
Speaker 1: difficult it would be to coordinate activities that should happen
Speaker 1: more than monthly, but less than daily. I mean, right now,
Speaker 1: it's just so easy to remember something like, you know,
Speaker 1: I've got soccer practice on Tuesdays or something like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, there'd be some clear adjusting there. But as
Speaker 1: Zara Babo points out, it's one thing to think about
Speaker 1: the weekdays tethered disport or hobby, but it gets even
Speaker 1: more important when you're thinking about it for basic survival.
Speaker 1: Like let's say you have to ride to town A
Speaker 1: couple of times a month just to get provisions from
Speaker 1: the farmer's market. If it takes you two hours to
Speaker 1: get to town, you definitely want to be sure that
Speaker 1: when you get there the market's open. So knowing that
Speaker 1: the markets on Wednesdays takes care of that and and
Speaker 1: allows you to make plans. Yeah, I mean it makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense, and it's weird that we don't
Speaker 1: often stop to think about it. I mean, the week
Speaker 1: is the longest unit of time that's not at all
Speaker 1: dependent on nature. So it's pretty significant as far as
Speaker 1: a philosophical shift in our development. And in a way,
Speaker 1: it's like our way of saying that we're ready to
Speaker 1: stop solely depending on nature and instead begin to establish
Speaker 1: our temporar rhythms around a unit that we created. And
Speaker 1: it is worth noting that there's no compelling evidence of
Speaker 1: any major seven day biological processes in nature. I mean,
Speaker 1: there does appear to be a form of algae that's
Speaker 1: used to study circadian rhythm because it has exhibited signs
Speaker 1: of some seven day biological rhythms, but it's a bit
Speaker 1: of a stretch to think that it's played into how
Speaker 1: we think about time in any real way. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: definitely sounds like a stretch. Al Right, well, let's talk
Speaker 1: about the creation of the seven day week. I know
Speaker 1: you did some digging into this with a ton of
Speaker 1: great help from our research or autumn, So tell us
Speaker 1: what you know. Sure, well, this can actually be its
Speaker 1: own episode because it's an interesting history. But to boil
Speaker 1: it down, it was really the result of early Jewish
Speaker 1: cultures and Babylonian astronomy thinking up. So let me plane.
Speaker 1: As you know, Judaism was focused on a seven day cycle,
Speaker 1: as depicted in the Torah, you know, seventh day of
Speaker 1: rest and all that, and and the other six days
Speaker 1: were really just days leading up to the Sabbath. Then
Speaker 1: you have the Babylonians, who had come up with the
Speaker 1: idea that the seven celestial bodies that moved across the sky,
Speaker 1: that they had certain effects on everything humans did. Five
Speaker 1: of these were planets as we know them now, and
Speaker 1: and the other two were the sun in the moon,
Speaker 1: but still seven. So the Babylonians they also had a
Speaker 1: seven day cycle. No, I mean, at least there's no
Speaker 1: evidence of that. But here's how they came together. In
Speaker 1: the second century b C. The Alexandrians brought together three
Speaker 1: beliefs that were pretty firm at that point. The first
Speaker 1: was you've got these seven planets which came into particular order,
Speaker 1: and then you had the twenty four hour day. And
Speaker 1: third there's this idea that the planet that ruled the
Speaker 1: first hour of each day ruled the entire day. It
Speaker 1: didn't take too long for the set of beliefs to
Speaker 1: run smack dab into Judaism, and the two sets of
Speaker 1: beliefs sanked up by the end of the first century
Speaker 1: see the Sabbath again, the only day that really mattered
Speaker 1: to the Jewish cycle, and the day of Saturn, just
Speaker 1: one of the seven planets in Babylonian astrology, were one
Speaker 1: and the same, And by the third centuries the week
Speaker 1: was pretty widespread. Yeah, and the and the seven day
Speaker 1: cycle stuck and was gradually adopted by pretty much everyone.
Speaker 1: Though this isn't to say that there weren't a couple
Speaker 1: of pretty big attempts to implement different systems. I was
Speaker 1: actually curious to see who tried to come up with
Speaker 1: better systems over time, and found a couple of good
Speaker 1: stories that, to be honest, I had actually forgotten about
Speaker 1: from history class, Like what, all right, well, let's start.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the French Republicans after the French Revolution.
Speaker 1: During the revolution, assembly members decided to come up with
Speaker 1: a new calendar, still with twelve months, but they wanted
Speaker 1: to make the other time units as close to metric
Speaker 1: as they could. So each month had three ten day weeks.
Speaker 1: Each day would have ten hours divided into a hundred
Speaker 1: minutes each, and each minute would have a hundred seconds.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's actually so confusing to think about this.
Speaker 1: Then there would be five or six days left at
Speaker 1: the end of the year that would be reserved for
Speaker 1: a celebration. It is interest thing to note that this
Speaker 1: system is very similar to what the Egyptians had created
Speaker 1: when they became the first civilization to create weeks, which
Speaker 1: is all super interesting and I so want to get
Speaker 1: into time machine and witnessed the celebrations. It sounds really fun.
Speaker 1: But you can see how that structure it could make
Speaker 1: sense if it's what people have been used to. But
Speaker 1: given that they were used to a seven day calendar
Speaker 1: with twenty four hours per day, it was probably pretty
Speaker 1: confusing why they even attempt this. But there were a
Speaker 1: couple of reasons. I mean that the Biggie beyond just
Speaker 1: being a more rational system. As they saw it, it it
Speaker 1: was that they wanted this very real new beginning, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of a break from the past. And obviously that
Speaker 1: didn't last forever. So how long did it last? Round
Speaker 1: honestly find it surprising that it lasted as long as
Speaker 1: it did. It was around twelve years, and it was
Speaker 1: just too confusing for everyone, especially because so many refused
Speaker 1: to stop keeping track of the old calendar. Even find
Speaker 1: reports that when newspapers were required by a lot equipped
Speaker 1: publishing the old date alongside the new one, people were
Speaker 1: still using the old calendar to keep track of certain
Speaker 1: important dates, and of course to observe their holy days,
Speaker 1: and many of them would take that day of rest
Speaker 1: along with the scheduled day of rest, and ultimately there
Speaker 1: were just too many days with little significance in between
Speaker 1: these anchor days, and so finally it was scrapped. I
Speaker 1: still confused that I lasted over a decade, and it
Speaker 1: makes me think about the attempts over the years to
Speaker 1: get Americans to convert to the metric system, like a
Speaker 1: system that actually makes a lot of sense, but it's
Speaker 1: just way too hard to get people to move from
Speaker 1: something they're used to especially if they don't see it
Speaker 1: as broken. And obviously that change was like politically loaded.
Speaker 1: But um, you were talking about the French, but you
Speaker 1: said there was another attempt. Yeah, that's right. So they
Speaker 1: were also the Soviets, and they tried to change things
Speaker 1: up in nineteen nine. And this was really more of
Speaker 1: an effort to increase production from the workforce. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know this, but the Soviets were kind
Speaker 1: of big on this idea of getting more out of
Speaker 1: the workfloor. I heard that. And as they saw at
Speaker 1: the regular seven day week left machines and workers idle
Speaker 1: for two out of every seven days. And that's just
Speaker 1: not efficient as they saw it. I'll warn you it
Speaker 1: is pretty crazy what they tried to do. I'm ready
Speaker 1: for all right. So they created these five day weeks
Speaker 1: and sets of six to get these thirty day months
Speaker 1: and months that had thirty one days. Well, they just
Speaker 1: made that another work day, which is so Soviet, and
Speaker 1: that part so far you can follow. But the workers
Speaker 1: would have one out of every five days off. And
Speaker 1: here's where it gets a little crazy, all right. So
Speaker 1: instead of having some big anchor day like the sabbath
Speaker 1: or a weekend, they just assigned one of the five
Speaker 1: days to each person as their personal day off. Each
Speaker 1: day was then assigned a color, and then people were
Speaker 1: assigned a color and a number, and the corresponding color
Speaker 1: was your That sounds so confused. I told you it's crazy.
Speaker 1: So did uh? Families are groups of friends, like, did
Speaker 1: they all get the same day off? No? And that
Speaker 1: was a big problem. If you look at people's address books,
Speaker 1: you'd see people having to keep up with when their
Speaker 1: loved ones days off were, and they have to write
Speaker 1: their colors next to each of their names. It was
Speaker 1: just so, so so confusing. Yeah, I'm not that organized,
Speaker 1: and it's not surprising. Why why this wouldn't have lasted?
Speaker 1: I mean people couldn't have their worship days together, which
Speaker 1: I guess matters less to the Soviets, but also you
Speaker 1: know what about just getting your family together and playing sports? Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, it was. It was a big problem. So
Speaker 1: even though a year after it launched, the state was
Speaker 1: claiming that nearly three fourths of the workers were on
Speaker 1: this continual production week, it still didn't sit well with
Speaker 1: people because their families and social circles they were being
Speaker 1: broken up. But did it meet their goal like, did
Speaker 1: it increase production? Well, that was one of the nails
Speaker 1: in the coffin to it. It actually didn't really increase production,
Speaker 1: or at least not by much. Machines were wearing out
Speaker 1: and they couldn't be fixed because they didn't have off days,
Speaker 1: and it was tough on workers. So Stalin then decided
Speaker 1: to put the plan on hold until all the issues
Speaker 1: could be worked out. And you know, you think they
Speaker 1: would just go back to the seven day week, but nope,
Speaker 1: not the Soviets. They they couldn't accept the idea of
Speaker 1: going back to that, so they decided on a sixth
Speaker 1: day week instead, and everyone had the same day off
Speaker 1: at least, but it was still nearly impossible to get
Speaker 1: everyone in rule areas to follow this new calendar. So
Speaker 1: by around nineteen or so, the Soviets were back to
Speaker 1: the seven day week, which sounds exhausting and try explaining
Speaker 1: and I actually think I need a break for a quiz.
Speaker 1: But we decided to do this episode on the best
Speaker 1: day of the week. We were both reminded of this
Speaker 1: terrific book by Melissa Hecksher. It was called Be Safe,
Speaker 1: Simple Strategies for Death Free Living, and we were fortunate
Speaker 1: enough to get Melissa on the line to answer a
Speaker 1: few questions about our favorite parts of her book. Melissa,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius. Hi, thanks for having me on. Awesome. So, Melissa,
Speaker 1: before we dive into specifics, I was curious, how did
Speaker 1: the book idea come to you? Were you always just
Speaker 1: worried about the possible ways you could die? Actually kind of,
Speaker 1: I'm sort of one of those people that worries about everything, So,
Speaker 1: you know, when when it came to me, I was
Speaker 1: living in New York City at the time and doing
Speaker 1: a lot of driving and traveling by train and subway,
Speaker 1: and I just was always wondering every time I got
Speaker 1: on the subway what car I should get onto. Should
Speaker 1: I be in the back of the subway or middle
Speaker 1: of the subway, you know? Or when I was driving
Speaker 1: to and from Philadelphia, where my parents live, I always
Speaker 1: wondered whether I should be in the middle lane or
Speaker 1: the right lane, or these small choices that we make
Speaker 1: every day to stay safe. And I was always thinking
Speaker 1: about it. So I wanted to do a little more
Speaker 1: research to find out the answers to those questions. And
Speaker 1: wasn't it Salvador Dolly that used to like to ride
Speaker 1: in the front car so that he would get there earlier,
Speaker 1: get there first. The front car actually is the safest
Speaker 1: because it's where usually the conductor is. All right, well,
Speaker 1: you know this episode is on the best day of
Speaker 1: the week, or asking the question what is the best
Speaker 1: day of the week. And of course we thought about
Speaker 1: you because several of your your entries in this great
Speaker 1: book have to do, you know, with the best day
Speaker 1: of doing certain things, so we thought we'd ask you
Speaker 1: about a few of those. So, I know you mentioned
Speaker 1: in the book the safest time to go to the bank,
Speaker 1: So tell us when that is. The safest time to
Speaker 1: go to the bank? Is really between Tuesday and Thursday, um,
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, because historically bank robberies seem to happen
Speaker 1: on Fridays, and people think that's because that's pay day.
Speaker 1: So I guess the bank robbers assumed the bank is
Speaker 1: going to have so much more money on Friday. That's
Speaker 1: that's just when most bank robberies happen. So if you
Speaker 1: want to avoid them, to stay away from the bank
Speaker 1: on Friday morning because they also usually happen in the morning. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how about the best day to order sushi? I love sushi,
Speaker 1: so this one was important to me, especially because I
Speaker 1: around when I was writing the book is when I
Speaker 1: got pregnant, so I was extra careful with things like sushi.
Speaker 1: Um So, the best time to get sushi is on Friday,
Speaker 1: and that's because most fish markets are closed on Sundays.
Speaker 1: So you definitely don't want to get sushi on a
Speaker 1: Monday because the chances are that it hasn't it's not
Speaker 1: a fresh delivery, so you're not getting the freshest fish
Speaker 1: that way, which means that you have a greater chance
Speaker 1: of possibly getting sick from that fish. Oh that's interesting.
Speaker 1: It makes a lot of sense though when you say that. Well,
Speaker 1: here's one that wasn't on a specific day, but you
Speaker 1: addressed in a book the safest month to get elective surgery,
Speaker 1: and I thought this one was super interesting. It is interesting,
Speaker 1: um the safest most most residents graduate in June, and
Speaker 1: so they start at their new positions at a hospital
Speaker 1: in July. Um So, the safest month is actually June
Speaker 1: because the older residents that have been there all year
Speaker 1: and they know the system, they know the routine, they
Speaker 1: know their peers, they've been there all year. Whereas in July. Um.
Speaker 1: They're new and so not to say that they can't
Speaker 1: do their jobs, but they maybe don't know that they're
Speaker 1: not used to working together. There might be a few
Speaker 1: more mistakes or errors that happened in July than than
Speaker 1: happen in June. So if you can help it, schedule
Speaker 1: your surgery closer to you know, maybe May or June
Speaker 1: and not July or August. There are a few parts
Speaker 1: of the book that weren't related to specific days, but
Speaker 1: we're just so fun that we want to ask you
Speaker 1: about them. So he tells what's the safest room in
Speaker 1: a hotel? This one was a personal one for me too,
Speaker 1: because I did a lot of traveling by myself, so
Speaker 1: I always was a little bit worried. Is to the
Speaker 1: safest place to stay, especially as a woman alone, And
Speaker 1: the answer to that question is between the fourth and
Speaker 1: seventh floors, if you have a choice, if it's a
Speaker 1: high rise hotel, and in no matter what kind of
Speaker 1: a hotel, near the elevator. And that's just because there's
Speaker 1: more foot traffic and so you're safer being around a
Speaker 1: lot of people, because if someone's going to break into
Speaker 1: your hotel room or approach you as you're entering your room.
Speaker 1: It's less likely to happen where there's a lot of traffic.
Speaker 1: And then as far as the floors, most fire ladders
Speaker 1: don't reach above seven floors, So if you had to
Speaker 1: be evacuated in the case of emergency, if you're on
Speaker 1: a really high floor. First, it's obviously it's going to
Speaker 1: take you longer to get down if you're doing stairs.
Speaker 1: But um, if you had to be evacuated by fire ladder,
Speaker 1: be harder because the ladders don't always go that high.
Speaker 1: So fourth and seven floors near the elevator, and that's
Speaker 1: pretty much the safest place you can be. I think
Speaker 1: I need to change my strategy. Actually, when I get
Speaker 1: to a hotel, I often request a room away from
Speaker 1: the elevator just because it's noisy there. But I didn't
Speaker 1: realize how unsafe it was. Well, you know, it's a
Speaker 1: trade off. So you want a quiet room and you
Speaker 1: might not be as safe, but you can sleep better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, there was one other that I that
Speaker 1: I saw here that I thought was just really interesting,
Speaker 1: and so, so, what is the safest stall in a
Speaker 1: public restroom? What's interesting about this question is that there's
Speaker 1: a lot of studies that have looked at this question. Um,
Speaker 1: there's scientists that have actually collected samples from bathrooms to
Speaker 1: just to figure out which stall is the dirtiest. And um,
Speaker 1: the safest stall has been determined to be the first
Speaker 1: one or the one closest to the door, and that's
Speaker 1: because most people like a little bit of privacy when
Speaker 1: they go to the bathroom, so they go a little
Speaker 1: further from the door. Um, the dirtiest one turned out
Speaker 1: to be the middle stall. Um, which if you think
Speaker 1: it would be the furthest from the door, but it's
Speaker 1: actually the middle and the safest, least jermy room stall
Speaker 1: is um, the one closest to the door, and it's
Speaker 1: usually also the one with the most toilet paper, so bonus.
Speaker 1: It's not surprising that there would have been several studies
Speaker 1: on this because I think it is something that everyone
Speaker 1: who's walked into a restroom has thought this before, right, right,
Speaker 1: besides that jerk that walks out without washing his hands. Well,
Speaker 1: this is terrific. You know, this has always been a
Speaker 1: book that we've we've enjoyed flipping through and reading, even
Speaker 1: though it's been out for some time now. So I
Speaker 1: hope all our listeners will check out be Safe Simple
Speaker 1: Strategies for Death Free Living. Melissa, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining us on part Time Genius. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for having me. Welcome back to part Time Genius. Before
Speaker 1: the break, we were talking about the attempts by the
Speaker 1: French and Soviets and others in history to move away
Speaker 1: from the seven day week to other systems that we're
Speaker 1: seen is maybe more logical. It's really interesting to see
Speaker 1: how they all failed. I mean, what would you say
Speaker 1: is the baseline reason none of them panned out? Well,
Speaker 1: there was obviously a big problem with the reason in
Speaker 1: these new systems were put in place to begin with.
Speaker 1: I think they all underestimated just how disorienting the new
Speaker 1: structures would be. Let me think about it. When you
Speaker 1: change up the length of a week, you throw off
Speaker 1: someone's social rhythm. I mean, what day of the week
Speaker 1: do I go to the market. You throw off their
Speaker 1: personal rhythm. So you know, they were working six days
Speaker 1: in a row and then got a day of rest,
Speaker 1: and now they have to work nine before they get
Speaker 1: a day arrest. And then, maybe most importantly, you throw
Speaker 1: off their religious rhythm. You know, people were used to
Speaker 1: worshiping on Sundays and now suddenly Sundays don't even really
Speaker 1: exist anymore. So it's just way too confusing and frustrating
Speaker 1: and frankly upsetting for these people. Well, and when you
Speaker 1: consider the Soviets, it feels like there was something even
Speaker 1: bigger going on. By dividing time into five different calendars,
Speaker 1: they were really creating five different societies, all randomly assigned. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and all of this really threw off that temporal harmony
Speaker 1: that Zaibabel talks about. And we can't underestimate the role
Speaker 1: of religion here. Think about how important a designated weekly
Speaker 1: holy day is for each of the major religions. You know,
Speaker 1: the Jews set themselves apart by established the Sabbath early on.
Speaker 1: Christians were actually observing both as they were Jews and Christians,
Speaker 1: and they were observing the Sabbath on Saturdays and then
Speaker 1: their own day, which became Sunday, and eventually they just
Speaker 1: focused on Sunday in order to differentiate themselves. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we see this with Muslims as well, with Muhammad choosing
Speaker 1: Fridays as the Muslim holy day exactly. And with all
Speaker 1: that set so firmly and stone, it's hard to see
Speaker 1: ever moving away from the seven day week at this point.
Speaker 1: All right, well that is some fascinating stuff, but I
Speaker 1: think it's time that we fast forward several centuries and
Speaker 1: get to the big question of the day, and that is,
Speaker 1: you know, what are the best and worst days of
Speaker 1: the week? Well, why don't we start with the worst?
Speaker 1: And it didn't take Garfield telling us to guess what
Speaker 1: day most people think was the worst day of the
Speaker 1: week Mondays? But why Mondays? And what does science have
Speaker 1: to say about this? You're reminding me earlier about that
Speaker 1: a great Kathy Benjamin Peace over at Mental Flaws, and
Speaker 1: I think it was called something like six scientific reasons
Speaker 1: why Mondays are the worst? So why don't we start
Speaker 1: with that? Why don't we talk about that one for
Speaker 1: a minute? Sure? Well, one big that shouldn't chock us
Speaker 1: is if we think back to our sleep episode, weekends
Speaker 1: really throw off our sleep patterns. I mean, it's funny
Speaker 1: because every time we go through a daylight savings time change,
Speaker 1: everyone complains about our body clocks being thrown off, But
Speaker 1: most of us are doing this to ourselves every single weekend.
Speaker 1: Like we think we're doing ourselves a favor when we
Speaker 1: catch up on sleep, But in fact, we're just making
Speaker 1: it that much harder to wake up on Monday morning.
Speaker 1: Our body clocks are much more sensitive than we realize,
Speaker 1: and staying up a couple of hours later and sleeping
Speaker 1: a couple hours later like that all throws us off
Speaker 1: a little once again, sleep is so annoying? All right, Well,
Speaker 1: what else did Benjamin say? Well? She also talks about
Speaker 1: the fact that because we often eat and drink and
Speaker 1: generally indulge more over the weekends, people tend to feel
Speaker 1: worse about themselves on Monday. They have even been studies
Speaker 1: of women to confirm that they feel less attractive on
Speaker 1: Mondays because of the weekend indulging, and it's part of
Speaker 1: why people are more likely to start dieting on Mondays
Speaker 1: than any other day, which does make sense. And what's
Speaker 1: also interesting is that people actually are less healthy on Mondays.
Speaker 1: As Benjamin writes, scientists have found that even people who
Speaker 1: generally maintain their weight way the most at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the week. Mondays are also the most common day
Speaker 1: for people to suffer heart attacks and strokes. Even if
Speaker 1: you don't end up in the hospital, your blood pressure
Speaker 1: is higher on Monday, as is your chance of getting
Speaker 1: sick in general. Wow, and doesn't she talk about people
Speaker 1: just not liking their jobs as well. Yeah, there have
Speaker 1: been a lot of polls showing that the strong majority
Speaker 1: of people are not big fans of their jobs, or
Speaker 1: at least not that inspired by them. This is why
Speaker 1: you often see people experiencing feelings of depression or anxiety
Speaker 1: on Sunday evenings. They just don't want to go back
Speaker 1: to work. So the evidence really is stacking up against
Speaker 1: Mondays and I guess we shouldn't be shocked by this. Well,
Speaker 1: that may be true, but there's another part to it
Speaker 1: that may be the most interesting, and that's the fact
Speaker 1: that if you actually study people's moods throughout the work week,
Speaker 1: you don't necessarily find that they were feeling that much
Speaker 1: worse on Mondays than you know, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.
Speaker 1: But then if you ask them to recall their moods
Speaker 1: and their stress levels, they almost always report Mondays is
Speaker 1: being consistently worse. So a big part of it is
Speaker 1: that we're telling ourselves on Mondays are the worst. It
Speaker 1: is interesting and I've actually been reading a little about
Speaker 1: this too, and that's where because we believe that Mondays
Speaker 1: are harder and more stressful and generally bluer than other days.
Speaker 1: We then retrofit our memories of Mondays to fit that expectation,
Speaker 1: So we mentally exaggerate some of the worst things we
Speaker 1: remember about Mondays to represent the entirety of Mondays. Our
Speaker 1: brains are pretty tricky, and as our researcher Autumn said
Speaker 1: in one of our conversations, the Monday blues are a
Speaker 1: form of social organization. Yeah, And and just to be clear,
Speaker 1: it's not as though there aren't bad things about Monday.
Speaker 1: We talked about some of those. It's just that there's
Speaker 1: definitely a bit of a placebo effect going on here,
Speaker 1: and we exaggerate and we generalize certain memories and expectations
Speaker 1: about Mondays. All right, Well, then if we tend to
Speaker 1: view Mondays is worse even though we don't necessarily actually
Speaker 1: always feel worse on Mondays, would you say there's a
Speaker 1: day that could rival Monday for the worst? Oh? Definitely.
Speaker 1: There have been a couple of studies to show that
Speaker 1: our moods may actually reach their lower points on Wednesdays.
Speaker 1: Part of this might be because we're feeling pretty overwhelmed
Speaker 1: at work, and it's when we're the first is the
Speaker 1: way from a weekend on both it's you know, before
Speaker 1: or after? All Right, Well, I feel like that's enough
Speaker 1: of the sad talk, so let's get to the best
Speaker 1: day of the weekend before we get to the science
Speaker 1: of it. I'm curious, what's your favorite day of the week?
Speaker 1: Mango months, Tuesday, Tuesday? And why Tuesday. It's because I
Speaker 1: was born on a Tuesday, so I started paying attention
Speaker 1: to them. But then I don't know, like all the
Speaker 1: anxiety of Sunday and Monday is over and they're low expectations,
Speaker 1: and I don't know, there's a full week ahead. It
Speaker 1: feels like, oh, that's nice. How about you? I think
Speaker 1: that's probably safe Fridays because you know, I have a
Speaker 1: busy week. We have all our recording on Tuesdays and Thursdays,
Speaker 1: and I love doing that. Friday's is kind of a
Speaker 1: day where we get to plan for the weeks ahead,
Speaker 1: think about future episodes, and then of course the weekend
Speaker 1: is ahead, you know, So it's nice. I think those
Speaker 1: are my favorites. But but what do the studies say? Well,
Speaker 1: several studies show Saturday is the winner. It's the day
Speaker 1: where people feel they're free to do, you know, what
Speaker 1: they want with their time, at least more than other days,
Speaker 1: and they know they've got a whole other day of
Speaker 1: weekend ahead of them. Except for the most part, people
Speaker 1: tend to experience that to Day's is better, both in
Speaker 1: terms of their actual moods and how they remember their moods. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean that said, don't you think there's still a
Speaker 1: little bit of the reverse Monday effect going on with Saturday's? Definitely.
Speaker 1: So while we do tend to actually feel better on Saturday's,
Speaker 1: we also tend to look back at our weekends with
Speaker 1: rosier glasses than we do our working time, and we
Speaker 1: tend to underestimate how rewarded we are by our work
Speaker 1: if we enjoy what we do. So, yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: bit of cultural bias going on there. All right, Well
Speaker 1: what about Friday's. Yeah, this is probably why Friday's bring
Speaker 1: the highest mood of the work week. We're excited about
Speaker 1: the weekend, which we believe will be better than the
Speaker 1: work week. I mean, there's an entire restaurant chain named
Speaker 1: after the concept, t J I Friday's with some of
Speaker 1: those chicken fingers. Well, before you go running off with
Speaker 1: some honeymustard covered chicken. We should probably play a quick quiz,
Speaker 1: and then I want to hear about the facts he
Speaker 1: found about the days we haven't said much about. All Right,
Speaker 1: I think I can wait for that. So who do
Speaker 1: we have on the line today, Mango, Today, we've got
Speaker 1: a very special guest, the owner of a one a
Speaker 1: full comic bookstore in Baltimore, Guerrilla King Comics, Ian Sayer.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Part time Genius. Thank you well. Just before
Speaker 1: we get started, we wanted to say we love the
Speaker 1: intro to your store on your site, and I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna read it here for our listeners. It says here
Speaker 1: at Guerrilla King Comics, we believe that sequential art is
Speaker 1: the highest form of storytelling. We believe that gaily clad
Speaker 1: muscle men should pummel each other in the streets with
Speaker 1: lamp posts and other large objects. It's their right and
Speaker 1: it's their privilege. We believe that if comics are religion,
Speaker 1: then your friendly local comic bookshop should be like a church.
Speaker 1: We want to be your weird comics church. It's just
Speaker 1: such a warm and welcoming intro. Well, that's how I
Speaker 1: feel about comics. It's it's it's as simple as that,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, comics are the religious experience for me,
Speaker 1: and like Wednesdays might samit, you know, So today's show
Speaker 1: is about days of the weekend. Comic book stores have
Speaker 1: Wednesdays of super special day. Can you tell us what
Speaker 1: happens on that day? Yeah, I mean Wednesday is a
Speaker 1: new comic book day. If you love comics and look
Speaker 1: forward to reading the next one after you just for
Speaker 1: the last one, Wednesday is your day. Imagine if you
Speaker 1: could only watch TV like one day week, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like that would be like you're awesome
Speaker 1: TV day, Like this is that way for comics. So
Speaker 1: is there anything unusual or super fun about the rhythm
Speaker 1: of the day. There's a lot, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's the busiest day. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: print forward on Tuesday. Most people that are regulars, they
Speaker 1: keep they keep a pullish for us, meaning we we
Speaker 1: take all their books every week and set them aside
Speaker 1: and bagging board them for them and they can just
Speaker 1: come in and they won't sell out. I see the
Speaker 1: same people every week, and that I love these people,
Speaker 1: like we have this one guy. Have you ever seen
Speaker 1: the whole Chris party routine where he's interviewing people and
Speaker 1: he asked them like a simple yes or no question.
Speaker 1: Like he's interviewing comic part and he's like remember that
Speaker 1: part of the song where you said love to take
Speaker 1: people to the love you made? Yeah, and he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: that was great. All of this, all these like answers,
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, that was greatful. Like we have this
Speaker 1: one guy who'll come in and just be like remember
Speaker 1: that time that me they's always say in the stewards
Speaker 1: and he came out of the sewers and they killed
Speaker 1: different body outside of the sewers and its closed were
Speaker 1: all ripped up. It's like there'll be a best school
Speaker 1: read like, yeah, I remember that and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was awesome. And he's like and like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it is awesome. Like I missed these guys over the
Speaker 1: course of the week, and then they come in and
Speaker 1: it's like, I'm saying, so fantastic, And I have to
Speaker 1: know do you sneak a peek at comics that come
Speaker 1: in on Tuesdays or do you wait it out to
Speaker 1: enjoy it with your customers? Don't no way, I read
Speaker 1: them as soon as I go home. And have an
Speaker 1: uninterrupted hour. It doesn't really even feel like sneaking a peek.
Speaker 1: The way that um Our orders are set up, you
Speaker 1: kind of have to. If they're going to reorder comics,
Speaker 1: it's really good. You can only do it before a
Speaker 1: certain time on Wednesdays. We have to like immediately read them.
Speaker 1: Like you know, if like say, you know, Storm is
Speaker 1: having a baby and you didn't know about it, and
Speaker 1: everybody's gonna want to reorder that book, you gotta reorder
Speaker 1: it immediately. So yeah, so you kind of have to
Speaker 1: read the books as soon as they're out. All right.
Speaker 1: So what's the game called today, Mango? It's called Name
Speaker 1: that day, that's right. So we'll be providing you with
Speaker 1: a word bank of several days of the week. Now.
Speaker 1: These include Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We
Speaker 1: have intentionally left off Tuesday, so please don't guess Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Now we're gonna ask you a few questions and see
Speaker 1: how many you can answer, and just so you know,
Speaker 1: some of the answers repeat. All right, are you ready
Speaker 1: to get started? Okay? Question number one. The nickname hump
Speaker 1: Day was allegedly given to this day in n when
Speaker 1: Roy Man coined the phrase at a DuPont water cooler.
Speaker 1: What day are we talking about? I think Wednesday? Yea
Speaker 1: one for one question number two. Nachos went mainstream after
Speaker 1: Howard Costell commented on a tasty new snack he was
Speaker 1: eating during this night football. What night are we talking about? Monday?
Speaker 1: M hmm, that's right. Number three. This day was the
Speaker 1: day of the Last Supper. It's also Thor's day, and
Speaker 1: just in case you're trying to picture him, Thor is
Speaker 1: the one whose chariot is driven by goats. Abe was
Speaker 1: kind of a beginning. But if that's right? Three for three?
Speaker 1: Number four, This Adams family daughter is called Little Wanda
Speaker 1: and Brazil. What day of the week are we talking about?
Speaker 1: What day? Whoa so so? Ian's already four for four?
Speaker 1: Let's see if you can get a perfect score here.
Speaker 1: Number five. This day gets the dubious honor of both
Speaker 1: having an ice Cube movie and a Rebecca Black song
Speaker 1: named for it. What day of the week are we
Speaker 1: talking about? Definitely Friday? Five for five and the last
Speaker 1: question number six And because you like comic art, the
Speaker 1: Bengals weren't the only chart topping band to sing about
Speaker 1: this manic Day of the Week. The Chippetts Alvin and
Speaker 1: the Chipmunks Lady Friends also covered the song what Day
Speaker 1: did They sing About? Monday? Classic? Alright, so fun want
Speaker 1: to tell him how he did Mango? So ians Gordon
Speaker 1: astounding six for six, he ran the tables and he'll
Speaker 1: be going home with our very top prize. A handwritten
Speaker 1: note singing our praises to his mom or boss congratulations.
Speaker 1: I think what welcome back to part time genius. All right,
Speaker 1: So we've talked a lot about Mondays and Saturdays, and
Speaker 1: a little about Wednesdays and Fridays, but I think we
Speaker 1: need to show some love to the other days as well.
Speaker 1: Why don't you tell us a few facts that you
Speaker 1: found about each one? All right, let's do it. And
Speaker 1: I know we need to talk about the others, but
Speaker 1: I've got a couple more Monday facts here that I
Speaker 1: wanted to share. Alright, So Monday is the safest day
Speaker 1: of the week to have surgery. Hopefully you'll remember to
Speaker 1: show up because it's also the day with the most
Speaker 1: missed medical appointments. It's also the best day to apply
Speaker 1: for a job, meaning that a higher percentage of people
Speaker 1: who submit applications on Mondays and to advance to the
Speaker 1: next stage than any other day. So Mondays are redeemed
Speaker 1: a bit. What about Tuesday's, Well, Tuesday is the day
Speaker 1: for getting stuff done in more ways than one. It's
Speaker 1: the most productive day at work, according to multiple studies,
Speaker 1: and this is in spite of or or maybe because of,
Speaker 1: the fact that it's also the day with the highest
Speaker 1: email volume. It's the most popular day for exercise, and
Speaker 1: it's apparently the best day to day trade. I know
Speaker 1: you've been talking about getting into day trading, Mango, right,
Speaker 1: so maybe you can stop making Tuesday one of our
Speaker 1: recording days. You can just focus on your day trade. Okay,
Speaker 1: good call, All right, Oh but wait, actually, here's another
Speaker 1: study that showed Wednesdays have the highest returns and lowest
Speaker 1: volatility on the stock market. So maybe we'll let you
Speaker 1: focus on your stocks that day too. But you know,
Speaker 1: all this despite the fact that, as we discussed, it
Speaker 1: tends to be the worst day mood wise, according to
Speaker 1: some studies. And what about Thursdays, Well, contrary to what
Speaker 1: most people think, it's Thursday's, not Tuesdays that are best
Speaker 1: for buying airline tickets, and that's a big So let's
Speaker 1: just focus on that for Thursdays. Friday is the worst
Speaker 1: day to have surgery and the likeliest day to get fired.
Speaker 1: But you know, hey, we're excited about the weekend, so
Speaker 1: who cares. Saturday is the day you're likeliest to die
Speaker 1: in a car crash. But the good news is that
Speaker 1: you should just fly because Saturday sees the fewest flight delays.
Speaker 1: It's also the likeliest to inspire songwriting. That is, if
Speaker 1: you take the Christian hymns out of the equation, it
Speaker 1: has the greatest number of day of the week songs
Speaker 1: in the Amazon database. And finally, Sundays are the best
Speaker 1: day to get out on one of those long day
Speaker 1: trip car rides because it's the day with the fewest
Speaker 1: road passengers. All Right, So there's some really good facts
Speaker 1: in there, and it's a shame use so many of
Speaker 1: them up because you know what's next. Oh don't worry,
Speaker 1: I've got some good ones for the part time genius
Speaker 1: fact off. Okay, well, why don't you kick us off? Then?
Speaker 1: All right? Well, when I started the show about a
Speaker 1: story on manic Monday, I decided to hold off on
Speaker 1: sharing one bit. Do you I need to read the
Speaker 1: lyrics again, Well, did you know that Prince actually he
Speaker 1: wrote that song and it hit number two on the charts.
Speaker 1: And the only reason that didn't hit number one another
Speaker 1: Prince written song, one he wrote for himself. Kiss. So,
Speaker 1: for the first twenty six years of her existence, Wednesday
Speaker 1: Adams and the rest of her family didn't have names.
Speaker 1: The Adams Family creator finally gave the family members names
Speaker 1: for the nineteen sixties TV show, and her name reportedly
Speaker 1: came from the nursery rhyme Wednesday's child is full of woe. Alright,
Speaker 1: Well back to the topic of Monday's being a bummer.
Speaker 1: We can't have a fact off without a Garfield fact.
Speaker 1: So did you know that the Syndicated strip is the
Speaker 1: Guinness World Record holder for being the world's most widely
Speaker 1: syndicated strip. It's in more than hundred newspapers and other
Speaker 1: places around the world. I've got a great Garfield fact too.
Speaker 1: Did you ever notice as a kid that the voice
Speaker 1: of Garfield and all the TV specials in the eighties
Speaker 1: was the same voice as Peter Bankman from the animated
Speaker 1: show The Real Ghostbusters. I did. I Actually I knew
Speaker 1: it was the same person because I could hear it,
Speaker 1: I didn't know who it was. Yeah, it's a guy
Speaker 1: named Lorenzo Music, but that's not really my fact. Turns
Speaker 1: out he's not the only one who to have voiced
Speaker 1: both characters. The other one is a little more famous.
Speaker 1: Bill Murray, of course, was the original Peter Bankman, but
Speaker 1: he was also the voice of Garfield and Garfield the
Speaker 1: movie back in two thousand four. Oh nice, all right.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite Rolling Stones songs, Ruby Tuesday, was
Speaker 1: written by Keith Richards about his girlfriend Linda Keith. Apparently
Speaker 1: Linda had ditched Richards for Jimmy Hendricks and got into
Speaker 1: some drugs, and he tried to win her back and
Speaker 1: even got her parents involved, telling them that she was
Speaker 1: not doing well. I think, you know, when Keith Richards
Speaker 1: is trying to intervene, it may be time to come back.
Speaker 1: But it didn't go well, and they didn't speak again
Speaker 1: for many years. And I'd love to do an interview
Speaker 1: with her, not about Keith Richards, because I just want
Speaker 1: to know how she feels about the fact that by
Speaker 1: the Transitive property there's also a giant restaurant chain with
Speaker 1: a big old salad bar named after her. So speaking
Speaker 1: of family, restaurant chains. Did you know that T G
Speaker 1: I Fridays may seem like a family establishment made for
Speaker 1: Middle America, but it actually started out as a singles
Speaker 1: bar in Manhattan's Upper East Side in the mid sixties.
Speaker 1: This per fume salesman named Alan Stillman felt like there
Speaker 1: wasn't a good bar in the area that both men
Speaker 1: and women felt comfortable at, so he bought a bar
Speaker 1: on sixty three first and renamed it T G A. Friday's,
Speaker 1: and the rest is history. We've got to hear this quote,
Speaker 1: Stillman told Edible Geography. My timing was exquisite because I
Speaker 1: opened T J I Friday's the exact year the pill
Speaker 1: was invented. I happened to hit the sexual revolution on
Speaker 1: the head, and the result was that, without really intending it,
Speaker 1: I became the founder of the first singles bar. WoT
Speaker 1: I can't hate that one, MAGA. The trophy is yours. Congratulations,
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, and thank you out there for listening.
Speaker 1: Listen to you next time. Thanks again for listening. Part
Speaker 1: Time Genius is a production of how stuff works and
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Speaker 1: for us. Do we do? We forget Jason? Jason who