WEBVTT - Fan Favorite: Easy Tricks to Improve Your Life this New Year! 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:00.840 Guess what will? 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:01.600 What's that mango? 0:00:01.880 --> 0:00:04.600 So you know I've been obsessed with life hacks forever 0:00:04.880 --> 0:00:07.240 and it all goes back to this Wired article I 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:09.680 read back in two thousand and six. It was about 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:13.360 this TV show in Japan called The Edo Family Dinner Table, 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.919 and the whole show was just full of ridiculous little tips, 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.160 like if you don't have someone to water your plants 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:21.320 when you're away, just set them on a water soaked 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.880 diaper and apparently apparently the plant slowly absorbs the water 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:28.880 over vacation. Or if you want to turbo charge your sled, 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.080 you can spray some nonstick PAM under the sled. But 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:34.520 my favorite thing from it is how to immediately become 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:35.320 more flexible. 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:38.440 I can't wait. And so what's the trick here? 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:40.720 Well, if you can't touch your toes, instead of just 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.440 leaning over, if you take both arms and point them 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:45.960 out at ninety degrees to one side, and then you 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.040 slowly wind mill them around all the way to your toes, 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.479 you can actually get closer to touching your toes. It's incredible. 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:55.280 I kind of thought this one was going to involve 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:56.840 PAM as well, like under your feet. 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:58.920 He just slipped out into a split. 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:01.800 That'd be great. But since it's a new year, we 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.000 thought what better way to embrace our best selves than 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:06.640 trick and cheat our way to results. So that's what 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:08.480 today's show is all about. Let's dig in. 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:32.360 Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part Time Genius. I'm 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:34.160 Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.319 friend Mangesh how Ticketer and sitting behind that soundproof glass 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:40.800 running the audio equipment from a handcrafted Nordic track down. 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:41.759 That's impressive. 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:44.120 I guess he's getting his skiing in while he does this. 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:47.200 That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now today, we're 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.720 ringing in twenty eighteen with a look at some unusual 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.560 ways to better your life in the year ahead. So 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.080 we're gonna check out some fun life acts like you know, 0:01:55.120 --> 0:01:57.160 how to beat an ice cream headache. We'll also get 0:01:57.160 --> 0:01:59.480 a bit more ambitious with ideas like how to be 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:01.840 a better list or how to cram a year's worth 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.960 of trash into a single Mason jar, And of course, 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.320 to start the second year of ptg off Right, We've 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.800 also got a ridiculous quiz lined up as well. 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:11.600 So who's playing today? Mango Yeah. 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:13.920 Today, we're going to have a very special guest, my wife, 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:16.760 Lizzie Jacobs. She's been producing a fun new show for 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:20.560 American public media called Mashup Americans. But she also hates 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:22.840 whenever I talk about life acts, so we'll give her 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:24.040 a little quiz about him. 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:25.760 All right, So to get us started, I thought we 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.080 should acknowledge the inspiration for today's show, which is the 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:32.919 age old practice of making New Year's resolutions. That's something 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:35.840 humans have done for thousands of years, going all the 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.040 way back to ancient Rome, when Julius Caesar rejiggered the 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.640 calendar and named January first the starting point for each 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.600 new year. And Caesar named the first month in honor 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.280 of the two faced god Janice, who was believed to 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.560 look both backwards at the previous year and boards into 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.280 the future. So by offering sacrifices and making promises to 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.920 be good, ancient Romans hope to win Janis's favor in 0:02:58.960 --> 0:02:59.920 the year ahead. 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:02.679 Right, So fast forward a few millennia to today, and 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.920 every January, a little over half the population pledges to 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:09.040 lose weight, or quit smoking, or I don't know, spend 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:11.400 more time outdoors, all in the hopes of making the 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:13.640 new year better than the last one. And you know, 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.160 this lasts for about a month or so until our 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.760 old habits kicked back and we're right back to where 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:19.280 we started. 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:21.960 Yeah, I guess without the threat of you know, Janice 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.240 looming over us, maybe people's resolve isn't what it used to. 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:29.200 Be back then. Is blaming on janis, but everything on Janis. 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:31.640 According to the University of Scratton, more than ninety percent 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:33.919 of the people who make resolutions fail to keep them. 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.280 And of course I'm guilty of this every year when 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.040 I claim I'm going to write my friends more or 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.360 finish my novel which is tentatively titled How to Write 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.080 Your Friends More. But the main reason for that low 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.480 success rate is that we set ourselves up for failure 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:48.760 by choosing goals that were already at achieving. 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:51.080 Yeah, you know, it's weird because we tend to go 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:54.240 for things that we've already tried and failed at, you know, 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:56.200 during the past year or so, whether that's going to 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:59.000 the gym more often or eating better whatever it might be. 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:01.440 Right, And so the science actually shows us that we 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.280 get a sense of satisfaction just from the idea of 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:06.920 accomplishing a difficult goal, which is why so many people 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.680 like making resolutions. In the moment, we feel good about 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:11.560 saying that we're going to lose weight this year, and 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.040 we predict that we'll still feel that way in the future. 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:16.880 But then when it's actually time to follow through, that 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.200 initial happy feeling is faded, and suddenly the prospect of 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:22.560 running three miles a day or whatever doesn't sound like 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:23.320 fun anymore. 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:25.640 Well, I'm glad you say that, because this actually brings 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.640 us to our first life act, because there just might 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.279 be a way to make ourselves think more concretely about 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.600 the future. And this comes from the research of Hal Hirschfield, 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:38.000 who's a marketing professor at UCLA School of Management. So 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:42.040 they're using fMRI scans and they discover that people process 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.240 information about their future selves in a different part of 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:47.200 the brain than the one that deals with their thoughts 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.200 about their presence self. And here's the crazy thing is 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.080 that this part of the brain that's associated with future 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.240 selves is actually the same one that's connected to thoughts 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:57.400 about strangers. 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.799 Wait, so are we actually thinking or seeing our future 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:02.839 selves as strangers? 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:05.359 I mean, we kind of are, actually, But this is 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.600 where things get interesting because it was a different study, 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.200 and Hirschfield was looking at students and having them examine 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:16.520 digitally aged pictures of themselves, and amazingly, tests showed that 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.960 this helped the students develop more empathy for their future selves. 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:21.000 Isn't that kind of strange? 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:23.479 And so when this happened, they were less likely to 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.960 procrastinate on things like studying for exams. And so apparently, 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.120 if we can make our future selves feel less like strangers, 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.480 we can actually use that motivation to better accomplish goals 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:34.160 in the present. 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:36.880 That's so bizarre, And I thought you were going to 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.320 tell us just to make more manageable goals like this year, 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:40.680 I'm going to learn to make an omelet or. 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:42.600 Something, but you should though, you should learn to make 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:43.680 an omlin someday. 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:45.719 But you're saying, if you want to keep your New 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.839 Year's resolution, just get in touch with your future self, right, 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.279 which I mean, I guess is actually pretty easy now 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:53.479 with asks like old define and aging booth or whatever. 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.160 Yeah, you can get super old and second it's pretty neat. 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:57.960 But you know, as we mentioned, one of the most 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:01.839 common resolutions people make is to exercise more often. I know, 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:04.520 when we were in college, you always would say I'm 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.880 gonna start lifting weights on Monday, but then you just 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.159 go play basketball, and then it was Tuesday and you'd 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:11.680 have to wait until the next Monday. 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.599 I know, if a basketball is so much more fun. 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.719 Well, if you want a better shot at enjoying that workout. Actually, 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.880 here's another hack, and it's a quick science tip that says, 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.280 just smile and seriously, like the whole thing comes from 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.880 this long standing belief among some athletes that smiling while 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:32.000 exercising makes the workout feel easier, and it turns out 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.960 they're right. So there's a study done earlier this year 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:37.760 and researchers from Ireland and Wales teamed up to see 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.360 if a group of recreational runners perform better while smiling 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:44.840 or scowling. And the whole smile factor was downplayed to 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:46.640 the runners, you know, just so it didn't skew the 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:49.560 outcome of the test, and so they were only told 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:54.000 that the experiment would test factors relating to quote running economy, 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.960 which is, you know how much oxygen someone uses to 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.280 run at a given speech, So you can almost think 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:01.680 of it like economy, like how much gas do you 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.240 need to get somewhere? So first the researchers measured the 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:09.640 runners under normal circumstances. They weren't given any special instructions 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:11.680 or any techniques. They just had to run on a 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.600 treadmill until they were exhausted. Then, on a different day, 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.280 each of the runners undertook a series of four six 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:22.720 minute runs, using a different approach each time, some including 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.800 smiling or frowning continuously through the run. 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:28.880 And I mean, it seems like you're telegraphing this like that, 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.560 the smiling runners outpaced the frowners. 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:32.840 Well, not across the board. 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.160 I mean, a few of the volunteers actually did best 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.400 while frowning, and the researchers suggested that this might have 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.720 been because those frowns were like their game faces, you know, 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:43.640 that game face you get on when every time we're 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.080 about to start a podcast, and that maybe helped their 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:51.400 you know, determination to perform well. But the most economical 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:54.320 results came when the runner smiled, and so the group's 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:56.840 running economy was as much as two point seven to 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:00.440 eight percent higher during the smiling runs than it was 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:01.280 during the others. 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:04.360 That's crazy, So do we have any idea why that is? 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.880 Well, according to the lead researcher, the smiling likely helped 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:12.320 prompt this reduction and muscular tension. Now, there's one catch 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:16.120 to this, Because the smiling has to be sincere, you 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.920 can't fake it, so most of the runner's smiles became 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.480 more unnatural the longer the session went on. 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:23.040 Can you imagine trying to run. 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:26.680 Six minutes with a sincere smile on your face? So 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.200 if you want to boost your performance while running, it's 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:33.320 best to smile sincerely mango. In fact, one researcher suggests 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.760 that you save your smile for near the end of 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:39.240 the race and then use it in thirty second burst. 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.240 You know, so you don't wear out that sincerity. 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:43.520 I love that you can just pocket you into sincerity 0:08:43.559 --> 0:08:46.080 and then pull it when you need small slam. 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.680 There's nothing more sincere than planning out your thirty second smile. 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.440 It's all over my Google calendars. Here's one for any 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:55.960 listener who wants to be a better performer but doesn't 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:58.680 actually want to break a sweat. So the next time 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:00.880 you're at a karaoke bar and you need to hit 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.440 a high note in your soulful rendition of I don't 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:06.120 know my heart will go on, just try lifting a 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.000 potted plant over your head. As you sing. 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.520 So if people don't look ridiculous enough doing karaoke, you know, 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:14.240 you might want to add a fern to the mix. 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:16.840 I guess here, Well, it doesn't have to be a plant, 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.680 But lifting something heavy above your head actually can help 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:21.880 you hit high notes in the higher registers. And this 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.000 is one of those old chestnuts I learned at mental flaws. 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.240 But basically that weight makes your muscles tense up, which 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.400 in turn forces your larynx to stretch a little, and 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:32.520 that will actually help you land the high notes and 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.880 impress all the people who would have otherwise thought you foolish. 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.280 All right, well, I'll keep that one in mind, manga. 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:41.600 So, staying on the subject to sound, did you know 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.600 that our left and right ears are actually each equipped 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.520 to hear different kinds of sound. So our right ears 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.640 are better suited for deciphering speech patterns, while our left 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.840 ears are better with musical qualities like pitch or timber 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:54.600 or loudness. 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:55.000 You know what. 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:57.480 I've read a little bit about this, and I might 0:09:57.520 --> 0:09:59.400 be mixing up the sides here, but isn't the idea 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.439 that they're right ear is paired with the left hemisphere 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:04.760 of the brain, which is the side that's better at 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:06.440 processing verbal information. 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.600 Sure, yeah, you're completely right. So weirdly, the same kind 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:11.640 of right ear preference shows up in other species. So 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:14.079 I was reading about this earlier, and it's common for 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:18.680 rats and dogs and also sea lions. Oh but one 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:21.320 really cool thing I found out is that even apart 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:23.760 from its left brain connection, our right ear is also 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:25.360 physically better for hearing speech. 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:26.839 Oh, so what do you mean by that? 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.800 So this comes from this joint research effort from UCLA 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:33.920 and the University of Arizona. But when you hear a sound, 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.400 the tiny cells in your ear expand and contract to 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:40.680 amplify the vibrations, and then inside these inner hair cells 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:43.199 convert the vibrations and send them to the brain. And 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.440 that's simplistic, but that's kind of how your ear works. 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.679 But the team measured the hearing of three thousand newborns 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.280 using two different kinds of sound, and they looked at 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.439 these rapid clicks like those found in speech, and then 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.959 sustained tones like those found in music. And the results 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:01.320 showed that the left ear actually gave extra amplification for 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.840 tones like music. Well, the right ear did the same 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:05.000 thing for sounds like speech. 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:05.440 Wow. 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:08.160 So The weird thing is that your auditory processing really 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:10.960 begins with the ear itself, and that's before your brain 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.520 gets involved. And if you want to be a better listener, 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:15.200 all you have to do is make sure you're using 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:17.200 the correct ear for whatever you're trying to hear. 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:19.600 That is pretty neat, and I guess helpful when you're 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:21.439 at a cocktail party to know which side of your 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:23.480 face you need to really lean in with. I always 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:25.360 think about which side of the face I gotta lean 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.120 this side of my face and really hard here. It 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:30.319 actually reminds me of something else that we're a little 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.960 too quick to attribute to our brains, and that's the 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:35.800 all too familiar pain of brain freeze. 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.240 So I think I know where you're going with this, 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:40.520 and this is an amazing trick. I not only use 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:42.280 this all the time, but I've taught my kids this. 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:45.480 But in the words of Kanye, I'm gonna let you finish. 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:46.240 Thanks Kanye. 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:48.640 All right, So, as I was saying, most people go 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:51.559 along with the brain freeze name and assume the pain 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:53.680 is in their brain, which is why you know we 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.920 instinctively grab our heads or start rubbing our temples when 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.960 we scarf down ice cream or drink something really cold, 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:02.959 but there actually aren't any pain receptors in the brain 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.640 at all. Instead, scientists think the pain is due to 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.319 these spasms brought on by the quick cooling of blood 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.040 vessels in the back of the throat. So the next 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:13.000 time you need to relieve that brain freeze, you can 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:15.599 drink something warm or just place your tongue against the 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:17.839 roof of your mouth and that helps warm up those 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:20.040 blood vessels and gets the brain freeze to go away. 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:21.880 Yeah, so that's the trick, I know, Just shove your 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:23.760 tongue against the roof of your mouth and that headache 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.520 just melts away. But this isn't something I'm going to 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:29.160 tell my kids. But there's also an other way to 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.840 lessen that pain, and that's to use swear words. 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:35.080 I love how we're talking about resolutions for twenty eighteen, 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:36.800 and a good one maybe to get to your kids 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:37.440 to swear more. 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:40.560 Yeah, I mean they're already from New York, so right. 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:42.800 But this is a real thing. So, according to a 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:45.960 study at Kiel University, people who curse freely can endure 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:49.240 pain almost fifty percent longer than those who watch their language. 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.880 WHOA yeah, and the researchers had sixty four volunteers stick 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:55.160 their hand into a tub of freezing water for as 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.600 long as they could while repeating their favorite swear word. 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:00.520 Then they repeated the experiment, but they got to use 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:04.160 a benign word instead. And shockingly, the volunteers who swore 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.240 endured nearly two minutes of pain, while those who use 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.680 the benign words, so something like eggplant over and over 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.960 and over, they lasted just a minute and fifteen seconds. 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.080 That is wild. Then that's a huge difference. So do 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.360 researchers know why cursing, you know, lessens the pain? 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.160 Yeah, they're not exactly sure, but their best guess is 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:25.240 that the swearing helps us downplay the threat in order 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:27.680 to overcome it. But the curious part is that the 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.000 curses kind of have to mean something. So, just like 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:32.720 your smile earlier, if you want to lessen your pain 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.679 by swearing, you have to limit your casual curses. And 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.920 as the researcher put it, swearing is emotional language, but 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:41.880 if you overuse it, it loses its emotional attachment. 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:45.000 Well all things in moderation, I guess, all right, Well, 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:46.920 before we get into more life acts, why don't we 0:13:46.960 --> 0:14:02.400 take a quick break. You're listening to part Time Genius 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.000 and we're talking about some quirky ideas to make life a. 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:05.760 Little bit easier. 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.200 So mego I mentioned this upfront that we would cover 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:10.960 some life hacks that may be a bit more ambitious 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:13.360 than using dental floss to slice up a cake or 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:15.360 some of the other really silly things you find if 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:16.959 you're looking online for life hacks. 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.200 But I almost love the dumb and useless life hacks 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:21.760 as much as the good one. Oh yeah, Like there 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.160 was this one that said, uh, never forget where you 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:26.480 park your car in a parking lot, just tie a 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:27.920 helium balloon to the antenna. 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:29.240 I'm not as good. 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:31.640 I love that, like it just assumes that you always 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:34.520 have freshly filled helium balloons up of course, of course, 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.200 and there was this other one where where you turn 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:39.360 your hoodie around so the hoodie parts in front of 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:44.240 you and it's considered an accessible snack pocket. So the 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:46.560 picture I had this like fresh popcorn in the hood 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:48.600 in front of this coder so that he could just 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:51.040 burrow his face in the popcorn whenever he needed to bite. 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:53.280 And that was also he didn't have to move his hands. 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:54.320 It's so dumb. 0:14:54.480 --> 0:14:57.400 I could totally see that being marketed toward coders. That's 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:00.240 pretty terrific. Although I will say that those kind of 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:02.960 life hacks do kind of give life hacks a bad name, 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.680 especially when you compare them to things that are really useful. 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.560 You know, like how hand sanitizer gets tree sap off 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.640 your hands, which is actually pretty useful when you're bringing 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.480 in Christmas trees or getting rid of them, and otherwise 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:16.280 you kind of have to sit there for like fifteen 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:18.760 minutes just your hands and scalding water. 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:21.240 I hate the stickiness of tree SAPs. 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.480 Stands sticky at all and much less tree sap, so 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.080 it drives me crazy. And then there was that trash 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:28.880 hack that you told me about that that I think 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:29.920 also fits the bill here. 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:31.320 Do you want to talk us through that one? 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:35.000 Definitely? So this one is related to this zero waste 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:37.840 lifestyle movement that's really big right now, and it's basically 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:40.080 an effort to reduce the insane amount of trash that 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:41.960 we produce on an individual level. And to give you 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.080 an idea of why this might be necessary, consider the 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:46.960 fact that the average American produces about four point five 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.200 pounds of trash each day. Which is over sixteen hundred 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:51.200 pounds per year. 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:53.640 Ah, that is a ton of trash. 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.800 Actually literally, that is almost a ton of trash that 0:15:56.880 --> 0:15:58.280 every single person produces. 0:15:58.480 --> 0:15:59.440 It's crazy crazy. 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.320 So obviously, with a population as large as ours, that 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:05.680 kind of trash production adds up fast. So here's a 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.000 clever way to reduce your role in the problem. Stuff 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.480 an entire year's worth of your garbage into a single 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:14.360 Mason jars. Yeah. I mean it might sound crazy, but 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.200 that's what Lauren Singer did, and it completely changed the 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:18.360 way she looks at trash. 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:22.320 Well, if Lauren Singer did it. Who is Lauren Singer. 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.080 She's a graduate from NYU's Environmental Science program, and she 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.040 runs this blog about sustainability called Trash Is for Tossers. 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.400 And a few years ago, Singer got some pressed because 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.480 she realized that her interest in living sustainably hadn't extended 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.080 past the classroom. And as she put it, I've got 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:39.520 this quote here. One day I went home after class 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:41.880 and opened my fridge to make dinner, and I realized 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:44.360 that every single thing I had in there was packaged 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:47.440 and plastic. So she made this decision to go plastic 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:49.680 free and started making other changes in her life to 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:51.680 live a less wasteful life. 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:53.920 And so that's where the mason jar comes in. 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.400 Yeah, that was kind of her way of keeping crack 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.560 of the small amounts of waste that she just couldn't 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.440 shake because like, even so she's sworn off buying, I 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:05.240 don't know, packaged goods and plastic and whatever, there's still 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:07.760 some random bits of paper and plastic that can't be 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.560 recycled or composted. So if you think about like fruit 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:12.800 often comes with these little stickers, or the bits of 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:15.680 plastic used to connect the price tag to your clothing. Yeah, 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.080 all of that's unavoidable waste. Then that goes into her 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:19.680 trustees sixteen ounce mason jar. 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:20.399 Wow. 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.480 But so she crams a full year's worth of garbage 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:26.119 into just one jar. How is that possible? 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.000 She's actually even more efficient than that. So Singer claims 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.600 to have used the same jar for four years straight. 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:32.160 No way. 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:34.560 Yeah, And if that's true, it means she's personally saved 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:37.560 over six thousand pounds of trash from heading to a landfill. 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.159 I think she's hiding our trash. But that is incredible 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.000 if this is true. But it also sounds like one 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:46.119 of those resolutions that's too hard to achieve, So on 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:48.040 the blog or anywhere else that this singer have any 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.280 tips for people who are just starting to consider how 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:51.679 to cut down their trash. 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:53.840 Or yeah, she's got a whole process laid out, So 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.399 she suggests people start by getting to know their trash, 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:58.199 kind of like what she did by looking at her 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:00.920