Speaker 1: Guess what will what's that go? So you know, I've
Speaker 1: been obsessed with life hats forever and it all goes
Speaker 1: back to this Wired article I read back in two
Speaker 1: thousand and six. It was about this TV show in
Speaker 1: Japan called The Edo Family Dinner Table, and the whole
Speaker 1: show was just full of ridiculous little tips, like if
Speaker 1: you don't have someone to water your plants when you're away,
Speaker 1: just set them on a water soaked diaper and apparently
Speaker 1: apparently the plant slowly absorbs the water over vacation. Or
Speaker 1: if you want to turbocharge your sled, you can spray
Speaker 1: some nonstick PAM under the sled. But my favorite thing
Speaker 1: from it is how to immediately become more flexible. I
Speaker 1: can't wait, and so, so what's the trick here? Well,
Speaker 1: if you can't touch your toes, instead of just leaning over,
Speaker 1: if you take both arms and point them out at
Speaker 1: ninety degrees to one side, and then you slowly windmill
Speaker 1: them around all the way to your toes, you can
Speaker 1: actually get closer to touching your toes. It's incredible. I
Speaker 1: kind of thought this one was gonna involve PAM as well,
Speaker 1: like under your feet, so you just slipped out into
Speaker 1: a split. That would be great too, But since it's
Speaker 1: a new year, we thought what better way to embrace
Speaker 1: our best selves than trick and cheat our way to results.
Speaker 1: So that's what today's show is all about. Let's dig
Speaker 1: in aither podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Speaker 1: Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
Speaker 1: friend Man Guesh Ticketer and sitting behind that soundproof glass
Speaker 1: running the audio equipment from a handcrafted Nordic tractor. That's impressive.
Speaker 1: I guess he's getting his skiing in while he does this.
Speaker 1: That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now today we're
Speaker 1: ringing in two thousand eighteen with a look at some
Speaker 1: unusual ways to better your life in the year ahead.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna check out some fun life hacks like
Speaker 1: you know, how to beat an ice cream headache. Will
Speaker 1: also get a bit more ambitious with ideas like how
Speaker 1: to be a better sner, or how to cram a
Speaker 1: year's worth of trash into a single Mason jar, and
Speaker 1: of course, to start the second year of ptg off Right,
Speaker 1: We've also got a ridiculous quiz lined up as well.
Speaker 1: So who's playing today Mango. Yeah. Today, we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a very special guest, my wife, Lizzie Jacobs. She's been
Speaker 1: producing a fun new show for American public media called
Speaker 1: Mash Up Americans. But she also hates whenever I talk
Speaker 1: about life hacks, so we'll give her a little quiz
Speaker 1: about him. All right, So to get us started, I
Speaker 1: thought we should acknowledge the inspiration for today's show, which
Speaker 1: is the age old practice of making New Year's resolutions.
Speaker 1: That's something humans have done for thousands of years, going
Speaker 1: all the way back to ancient Rome, when Julius Caesar
Speaker 1: rejiggered the calendar and named January one the starting point
Speaker 1: for each new year, and sees her name the first
Speaker 1: month in honor of the two face god Janice, who
Speaker 1: was believed to look both backwards at the previous year
Speaker 1: and boards into the future. So by offering sacrifices and
Speaker 1: making promises to be good, ancient Romans hoped to win
Speaker 1: janice favor in the year ahead. Right, So fast forward
Speaker 1: a few millennia to today, and every January, a little
Speaker 1: over half the population pledges to lose weight, or quit smoking,
Speaker 1: or I don't know, spend more time outdoors. All in
Speaker 1: the hopes of making the new year better than the
Speaker 1: last one. And you know, this last for about a
Speaker 1: month or so until our old habits kicked back and
Speaker 1: and we're right back to where we started. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess without the threat of you know, Janice looming over us,
Speaker 1: maybe people's resolve isn't what it used to be. Then
Speaker 1: is blaming on Janice? But everything on Janice, according to
Speaker 1: the University of Scranton, where the people who make resolutions
Speaker 1: fail to keep them. And of course I'm guilty of
Speaker 1: this every year when I claim I'm going to write
Speaker 1: my friends more or finish my novel which is tentatively
Speaker 1: titled How to Write Your Friends More. But the main
Speaker 1: reason for that low success rate is that we set
Speaker 1: ourselves up for failure by choosing goals that we're already
Speaker 1: bad achieving. Yeah, you know, it's weird because we tend
Speaker 1: to go for things that we've already tried and failed at,
Speaker 1: you know, during the past year or so, whether that's
Speaker 1: going to the gym more often or eating better whatever
Speaker 1: it might be. Right, And so the science actually shows
Speaker 1: us that we get a sense of satisfaction just from
Speaker 1: the idea of accomplishing a difficult goal, which is why
Speaker 1: so many people like making resolutions. In the moment, we
Speaker 1: feel good about saying that we're gonna lose weight this year,
Speaker 1: and we predict that will still feel that way in
Speaker 1: the future. But then when it's actually time to follow through,
Speaker 1: that initial happy feeling is faded, and suddenly the prospect
Speaker 1: of running three miles a day or whatever it doesn't
Speaker 1: sound like fun anymore. Well, I'm glad you say that,
Speaker 1: because this actually brings us to our first life act,
Speaker 1: because there just might be a way to make ourselves
Speaker 1: think more concretely about the future. And this comes from
Speaker 1: the research of how Hirshfield, who's a marketing professor at
Speaker 1: u c l A School of Management. So they're using
Speaker 1: fm r I scans and they discovered that people process
Speaker 1: information about their future selves in a different part of
Speaker 1: the brain than the one that deals with their thoughts
Speaker 1: about their presence self. And here's the crazy thing is
Speaker 1: that this part of the brain that's associated with future
Speaker 1: selves is actually the same one that's connected to thoughts
Speaker 1: about strangers. Wait, so are we actually thinking or seeing
Speaker 1: our future selves as strangers? I mean, we kind of are, actually,
Speaker 1: But but this is where things get interesting because there
Speaker 1: was a different study and Hirshfield was looking at students
Speaker 1: and having them examined digitally age pictures of themselves. An
Speaker 1: amazingly test show that this helped the students develop more
Speaker 1: empathy for their future selves. Isn't that kind of strange?
Speaker 1: And so when this happened, they were less likely to
Speaker 1: procrastinate on things like studying for exams. And so apparently,
Speaker 1: if we can make our future sells feel less like strangers,
Speaker 1: we can actually use that motivation to better accomplish goals
Speaker 1: in the present. That's so bizarre, And I thought you
Speaker 1: were going to tell us just to make more manageable
Speaker 1: goals like this, yere A'm gonna learn to make an
Speaker 1: omelet or something, but you should, though, you should learn
Speaker 1: to make someday. But you're saying if you want to
Speaker 1: keep your New Year's resolution and just get in touch
Speaker 1: with your future self, right, which I mean, I guess
Speaker 1: it's actually pretty easy now with us like old define
Speaker 1: an aging booth or whatever. Yeah, you can get super
Speaker 1: old and seconds. It's pretty neat. But you know, as
Speaker 1: we mentioned, one of the most common resolutions people make
Speaker 1: is to exercise more often. I know, when we were
Speaker 1: in college, you always would say, I'm gonna start lifting
Speaker 1: weights on Monday, but then you can just go play basketball,
Speaker 1: and then it was Tuesday and you'd have to wait
Speaker 1: until the next Monday. I know, the basketball is so
Speaker 1: much more fun. Well, if if you want a better
Speaker 1: shot at enjoying that workout, Actually, here's another hack, and
Speaker 1: it's it's a quick science tip that says, just smile
Speaker 1: and seriously, like the whole thing comes from this long
Speaker 1: standing belief among some athletes that smiling while exercising makes
Speaker 1: the workout feel easier and it turns out there right.
Speaker 1: So there's a study done earlier this year and researchers
Speaker 1: from Ireland and Wales teamed up to see if a
Speaker 1: group of recreational runners performed better while smiling or scowling.
Speaker 1: And the whole smile factor was downplayed to the runners,
Speaker 1: you know, just so it didn't skew the outcome of
Speaker 1: the test, and so they were only told that the
Speaker 1: experiment would test factors relating to quote running economy, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, how much oxygen someone uses to run at
Speaker 1: a given speech, So you can almost think of it
Speaker 1: like all economy, like how much gas do you need
Speaker 1: to get somewhere. So first, the researchers measured the runners
Speaker 1: under normal circumstances. They weren't given any special instructions or
Speaker 1: any techniques. They just had to run on a treadmill
Speaker 1: until they were exhausted. Then, on a different day, each
Speaker 1: of the runners undertook a series of four six minute runs,
Speaker 1: using a different approach each time, some including smiling or
Speaker 1: frowning continuously through the run. And I mean, it seems
Speaker 1: like you're telegraphing this like that, the smiling runners outpaced
Speaker 1: the frown ears. Well, not across the board. I mean,
Speaker 1: a few of the volunteers actually did best while frowning,
Speaker 1: and the researchers suggested that this might have been because
Speaker 1: those frowns were like their game faces, you know that
Speaker 1: game face you get on when every time we're about
Speaker 1: to start a podcast, and that may be helped their
Speaker 1: you know, determination to perform well. But the most economical
Speaker 1: results came when the runners smiled, and so the group's
Speaker 1: running economy was as much as two point seven eight
Speaker 1: percent higher during the smiling runs than it was during
Speaker 1: the others. That's crazy, So do we have any idea
Speaker 1: why that is? Well, according to the lead researcher, the
Speaker 1: smiling likely helped prompt this reduction and muscular tension. Now
Speaker 1: there's one catch to this, because the smiling has to
Speaker 1: be sincere, you can't fake it, So most of the
Speaker 1: runners smiles became more unnatural the longer the session went on,
Speaker 1: trying to run six minutes with a sincere smile on
Speaker 1: your face. So if you want to boost your performance
Speaker 1: while running, it's best to smile sincerely mango. In fact,
Speaker 1: one researcher suggests that you save your smile from near
Speaker 1: the end of the race and then use it in
Speaker 1: thirty second burst. You know, so you don't wear out
Speaker 1: that sincerity. I love that you can just pocket into
Speaker 1: sincerity and then pull it small, InCor plan. There's nothing
Speaker 1: more sincere than planning out your thirty second smiles. It's
Speaker 1: all over my Google calendars. Here's one for any listener
Speaker 1: who wants to be a better performer but doesn't actually
Speaker 1: want to break a sweat. So the next time you're
Speaker 1: at a karaoke bar and you need to hit a
Speaker 1: high note in your soulful rendition of I don't know
Speaker 1: my heart will go on, just try lifting a potted
Speaker 1: plant over your head as you sing. So if people
Speaker 1: don't look ridiculous enough doing karaoke, you know you might
Speaker 1: you might want to add a fern to the mix.
Speaker 1: I guess here, Well, it doesn't have to be a plant.
Speaker 1: But lifting something heavy above your head actually can help
Speaker 1: you hit high notes in the higher registers. And this
Speaker 1: is one of those old chestnuts I learned at mental flaws.
Speaker 1: But basically that weight makes your muscles tense up, which
Speaker 1: in turn forces your larynx to stretch a little and
Speaker 1: that will actually help you land the high notes and
Speaker 1: impress all the people who would have otherwise thought you foolish.
Speaker 1: All right, well I will, I'll keep that one in mind. Mega. So,
Speaker 1: staying on the subject to sound, did you know that
Speaker 1: our left and right ears are actually each equipped to
Speaker 1: hear different kinds of sound. So our right ears are
Speaker 1: better suited for deciphering speech patterns, while our left ears
Speaker 1: are better with musical qualities like pitch or timber or loudness.
Speaker 1: You know what. I've read a little bit about this,
Speaker 1: and I might be mixing up the sides here, but
Speaker 1: isn't the idea that the right ear is paired with
Speaker 1: the left hemisphere of the brain, which is the side
Speaker 1: that's better at processing verbal information. Right, Yeah, you're completely right.
Speaker 1: So weirdly, the same kind of right ear preference shows
Speaker 1: up another species. I was reading about this earlier, and
Speaker 1: it's common for rats and dogs and also sea lions.
Speaker 1: But one really cool thing I found out is that, uh,
Speaker 1: even apart from its left brain connection, our right ear
Speaker 1: is also physically better for hearing speech. So what do
Speaker 1: you mean by that? So this comes from this joint
Speaker 1: research effort from u c l A and the University
Speaker 1: of Arizona. But when you hear a sound, the tiny
Speaker 1: cells in your ear expand and contract to amplify the vibrations,
Speaker 1: and then inside these inner hair cells convert the vibrations
Speaker 1: and send them to the brain. And that's simplistic, but
Speaker 1: that's kind of how your ear works. But the team
Speaker 1: measured the hearing of three thousand newborns using two different
Speaker 1: kinds of sound, and they looked at these rapid clicks
Speaker 1: like those found in speech, and then sustained tones like
Speaker 1: those found in music. And the results showed that the
Speaker 1: left ear actually gave extra amplification for tones like music,
Speaker 1: while the right ear did the same thing for sounds
Speaker 1: like speech. So the weird thing is that your auditory
Speaker 1: processing really begins with the ear itself, and that's before
Speaker 1: your brain gets involved. And if you want to be
Speaker 1: a better listener, all you have to do is make
Speaker 1: sure you're using the correct ear for whatever you're trying
Speaker 1: to hear. That is pretty neat, and I guess helpful
Speaker 1: when you're at a cocktail party to know which side
Speaker 1: of your face you need to really lean in with.
Speaker 1: I always think about which side of the pace got
Speaker 1: lean this side of my face and really hard here.
Speaker 1: But it actually reminds me of something else that that
Speaker 1: we're a little too quick to attribute to our brains,
Speaker 1: and that's the all too familiar pain of brain freeze.
Speaker 1: So I think I know where you're going with this,
Speaker 1: and this is an amazing trick. I not only use
Speaker 1: this all the time, but I've taught my kids this.
Speaker 1: But in the words of Kanye, I'm gonna let you finish.
Speaker 1: Thanks Kanye. Al Right, So, as I was saying, most
Speaker 1: people go along with the brain freeze name and assume
Speaker 1: the pain is in their brain, which is why you
Speaker 1: know we instinctively grab our heads or start rubbing our
Speaker 1: temples when we scarf down ice cream or or during
Speaker 1: something really cold, but there actually aren't any pain receptors
Speaker 1: in the brain at all. Instead, scientists think the pain
Speaker 1: is due to these spasms brought on by the quick
Speaker 1: cooling of blood vessels in the back of the throat.
Speaker 1: So the next time you need to relieve that brain freeze,
Speaker 1: you can drink something warm or just place your tongue
Speaker 1: against the roof of your mouth and that helps warm
Speaker 1: up those blood vessels and gets the brain freeze to
Speaker 1: go away. Yeah, so that's the trick, I know, Just
Speaker 1: shove your tongue against the roof of your mouth and
Speaker 1: that headache just melts away. But um, this isn't something
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell my kids. But there's also another way
Speaker 1: to lesten that pain, and that's to use swear words.
Speaker 1: I love how we're talking about resolutions for two thousand
Speaker 1: and eighteen, and a good one maybe to get your
Speaker 1: your kids to swear more. Yeah, I mean they're already
Speaker 1: from New York's right, But this is a real thing.
Speaker 1: So according to a study at Keel University, people who
Speaker 1: curse freely can endure pain almost fifty longer than those
Speaker 1: who watch their language. Yeah, and and the researchers had
Speaker 1: sixty volunteers stick their hand into tub of freezing water
Speaker 1: for as long as they could while repeating their favorite
Speaker 1: swear word. Then they repeated the experiment, but they got
Speaker 1: to use a benign word instead, and shockingly, the volunteer,
Speaker 1: as you swore, endured nearly two minutes of pain, while
Speaker 1: those who use the benign words or something like eggplant
Speaker 1: over and over and over, they lasted just a minute
Speaker 1: and fifteen seconds. That is wild, and that's a huge difference.
Speaker 1: So do researchers know why cursing, you know, lessons to pain? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're not exactly sure, but their best guess is that
Speaker 1: the swearing helps us downplay the threat in order to
Speaker 1: overcome it. But the curious part is that the curses
Speaker 1: kind of have to mean something. So, just like your
Speaker 1: smile earlier, if you want to lessen your pain by swearing,
Speaker 1: you have to limit your casual curses. And as the
Speaker 1: researcher put it, swearing his emotional language. But if you
Speaker 1: overuse it, it loses its emotional attachment. Well, all things
Speaker 1: in moderation, I guess, all right, Well, before we get
Speaker 1: into more life facts, why don't we take a quick
Speaker 1: break if you're listening to Part Time Genius and we're
Speaker 1: talking about some quirky ideas to make life a little
Speaker 1: bit easier. So mago I mentioned this upfront that we
Speaker 1: would cover some life as that may be a bit
Speaker 1: more ambitious than using dental floss to slice up a
Speaker 1: cake or some of the other really silly things you
Speaker 1: find if you're looking online for life hacks. But I
Speaker 1: almost love the dumb and useless life hacks as much
Speaker 1: as the good one. Like there was this one that said, uh,
Speaker 1: never forget where you park your car in a parking lot,
Speaker 1: just tie helium balloon to the antenna. That's good and
Speaker 1: I love that, like it just assumes that you always
Speaker 1: have freshly filled helium balloons up course, of course, And
Speaker 1: there was this other one where where you turn your
Speaker 1: hoodie around so the hoodie parts in front of you
Speaker 1: and it's considered an accessible snack pocket. So the picture
Speaker 1: I had this like fresh popcorn in the hood in
Speaker 1: front of this coder so that he could just borrow
Speaker 1: his face in the popcorn whenever he needed to bite.
Speaker 1: And that was also he didn't have to move his hands.
Speaker 1: It's so dumb. I could totally see that being marketed
Speaker 1: toward coders, that's pretty sure, although I will say that
Speaker 1: those kind of life hacks do kind of give life
Speaker 1: hacks a bad name, especially when you compare them to
Speaker 1: things that are really useful. You know, like how hand
Speaker 1: sanitizer gets tree sap off your hands, which he's actually
Speaker 1: pretty useful when you're bringing in Christmas trees or getting
Speaker 1: rid of them, and otherwise you kind of have to
Speaker 1: sit there for like fifteen minutes just hands in scalding water.
Speaker 1: Hate the stickiness of tree sticks. Can't stand sticky at all,
Speaker 1: and much less tree sap, so it drives me crazy.
Speaker 1: And then there was that trash hack that you told
Speaker 1: me about that that I think also fits the bill here.
Speaker 1: Do you want to talk us through that one? Definitely?
Speaker 1: And so this one is related to this zero waste
Speaker 1: lifestyle movement that's really big right now, and it's basically
Speaker 1: an effort to reduce the insane amount of trash that
Speaker 1: we produce on an individual level. And to give you
Speaker 1: an idea of why this might be necessary, consider the
Speaker 1: fact that the average American produces about four point five
Speaker 1: pounds of trash each day, which is over six hundred
Speaker 1: pounds per year. Ah, that is a ton of trash.
Speaker 1: Actually literally, that is almost a ton of trash that
Speaker 1: every single person produces. It's crazy. So obviously, with a
Speaker 1: population as large as ours, that kind of trash production
Speaker 1: adds up fast. So here's a clever way to reduce
Speaker 1: your role in the problem. Stuff in entire year's worth
Speaker 1: of your garbage into a single Mason jar. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean it might sound crazy, but that's what Lauren Singer did,
Speaker 1: and it completely changed the way she looks at trash. Well,
Speaker 1: if Lauren Singer did it. Who is Lauren Singer. She's
Speaker 1: a graduate from n y USE Environmental Science program, and
Speaker 1: she runs this blog about sustainability called Trash Is for Tossers.
Speaker 1: And a few years ago, a Singer got impressed because
Speaker 1: she realized that her interest in living sustainably hadn't extended
Speaker 1: past the classroom. And as she put it, I've got
Speaker 1: this quote here. One day I went home after class
Speaker 1: and opened my fridge to make dinner, and I realized
Speaker 1: that every single thing I had in there was packaged
Speaker 1: in plastic. So she made this decision to go plastic
Speaker 1: free and started making other changes in the life to
Speaker 1: live a less wasteful life, and so that's where the
Speaker 1: mason jar comes in. Yeah, that that was kind of
Speaker 1: her way of keeping crack with the small amounts of
Speaker 1: waste that she just couldn't shake because like, even though
Speaker 1: she's sworn off buying I don't know, package goods and
Speaker 1: and plastic and whatever, there's still some random bits of
Speaker 1: paper and plastic that can't be recycled or composted. So
Speaker 1: if you think about like fruit often comes with these
Speaker 1: little stickers, or the bits of plastic used to connect
Speaker 1: the price tag deer clothing, all of that's unavoidable waste
Speaker 1: and that goes into her trustees sixteen ounce mason jar. Wow.
Speaker 1: But so she crams a full year's worth of garbage
Speaker 1: into just one jar. How is that possible? She's actually
Speaker 1: even more efficient than that. So Singer claims to have
Speaker 1: used the same jar for four years straight way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if that's true, it means she's personally saved over
Speaker 1: six thousand pounds of trash from heading to a landfill.
Speaker 1: I think she's hiding her trash somewhere, but that is
Speaker 1: incredible if this is true. But it also sounds like
Speaker 1: one of those resolutions that's too hard to achieve. So
Speaker 1: on the blog or anywhere else that this singer have
Speaker 1: any tips for people who are just starting to consider
Speaker 1: how to cut down their trash or yeah, she she's
Speaker 1: got a whole process later out. So she suggests people
Speaker 1: start by getting to know their trash, kind of like
Speaker 1: what she did by looking at her fridge and examining
Speaker 1: that she had too much plastic packaging. But once you've
Speaker 1: identified what kind of trash you produced the most of,
Speaker 1: you can start looking for solutions and ways to reduce it.
Speaker 1: So if you think about the fact that like you're
Speaker 1: throwing out a lot of wasted food, you can start
Speaker 1: composting or or maybe change the way you grocery shops
Speaker 1: so you're doing it more often but buying less each time,
Speaker 1: and that way you don't end up with all this
Speaker 1: excess food you can't use. But then the next step
Speaker 1: is to make smarter daily choices. And this is just
Speaker 1: little stuff like bringing reusable bags or coffee mugs with
Speaker 1: you when you're on about, or you know, refusing plastic
Speaker 1: straws when you get offered them. But Singer's biggest advice
Speaker 1: is to transition to a d I Y approach, and
Speaker 1: this is the one we'll all get held up on.
Speaker 1: But it's things like making your own cleaning products using
Speaker 1: apple cider vinegar, or baking soda or using citrus juice.
Speaker 1: For that, Wow, I mean that is interesting. And for
Speaker 1: me making your own cleaning products, that does feel like
Speaker 1: a big hurdle to getting a percent there, So I'm
Speaker 1: just not gonna try it all. But I mean, honestly,
Speaker 1: I do admire the commitment. One thing I do find
Speaker 1: appealing about singers single jar approaches just how much it
Speaker 1: limits her options because only allowing yourself such a tiny
Speaker 1: space for trash, it really restricts your choices, you know,
Speaker 1: for what you can consume exactly Like you might look
Speaker 1: at a box of oreos that look delicious, but you
Speaker 1: quickly realize how much less work you have to do
Speaker 1: by eating an apple. Yeah, and that's another tip for
Speaker 1: improving your lifestyle, and that is to limit your options.
Speaker 1: It sounds counterintuitive, but when it comes to choice, less
Speaker 1: is actually better, at least according to Shena iron gar And.
Speaker 1: She's a psychologist at Columbia University, and she studies this
Speaker 1: paradox of choice. She says that the greater choice can
Speaker 1: be a problem because of the added strain. It puts
Speaker 1: on your ability to process the information. You know, so
Speaker 1: think of all the time you spend weighing your different options,
Speaker 1: not to mention the fact that more choices also means
Speaker 1: a higher chance of making a mistake and maybe even
Speaker 1: passing up on a better option. So I mean, I
Speaker 1: like the idea, but what's alternative just settling for good enough? Actually, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that is the solution. And Sina conducted a few
Speaker 1: experiments to test her theories about choice, and she found
Speaker 1: that people got more pleasure from choosing a chocolate from
Speaker 1: an assortment of five than when they choose from thirty.
Speaker 1: And when I think about that specific example, actually get
Speaker 1: it because it is kind of stressful when you're trying
Speaker 1: to choose from that thing of thirty and you're looking
Speaker 1: through the guide and you're like this one with peanut
Speaker 1: butter or not. But that the idea is that if
Speaker 1: you know, if someone didn't make the absolute best choice,
Speaker 1: they'll still be happier in the long run, because you know,
Speaker 1: they didn't suck all the fun out of the experience
Speaker 1: through all this endless deliberation in the process. That's uh,
Speaker 1: that's a really funny because I I think about things
Speaker 1: like video stores and one of the reasons I love
Speaker 1: browsing in them as a kid, or libraries too, is
Speaker 1: that because you have this entire world and you have
Speaker 1: to walk out with only one or two choices, like,
Speaker 1: there's so much pressure to pick well, but then there's
Speaker 1: the fun in choosing that and deliberating. But I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess it's paralyzing if that's what every decision is like.
Speaker 1: If I always had to choose from three thousand chocolates
Speaker 1: to pick from, I'd probably avoid. But speaking of choice,
Speaker 1: there's one that I didn't even know I had, and
Speaker 1: that's which direction you're ceiling fans spins in. I don't
Speaker 1: know how I've gone so long without hearing about this,
Speaker 1: but apparently most ceiling fans have a two settings for
Speaker 1: your blade rotation, and that's clockwise or counterclockwise. I honestly
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever heard that either. So does the
Speaker 1: direction actually make a difference, Yeah, it does. So it
Speaker 1: turns out that we should be changing our fans with
Speaker 1: the seasons, just like we do with our clocks. And
Speaker 1: in the summer, ceiling fans has been counterclockwise to produce
Speaker 1: a breeze from the air they forced downwards, and then
Speaker 1: in the winter the fans should be switched to its
Speaker 1: clockwise setting, and that way the warm air that's risen
Speaker 1: to the ceiling gets pushed down from the side of
Speaker 1: the room and more warm air will be drawn upwards.
Speaker 1: That's pretty interesting. Yeah, all right, so we've covered a
Speaker 1: few tips for making home life a little more enjoyable.
Speaker 1: And now I think we should think about work life.
Speaker 1: What do you say? Yeah, and for it. But before
Speaker 1: we get started, let's take a quiz. Okay, it's quiz
Speaker 1: time and we've got Lizzie Jacobs in the studio today. Now,
Speaker 1: Lizzie is the producer of Mash Up Americans. She also
Speaker 1: has an Emmy, a Peabody, and a couple of best
Speaker 1: sellers to her name from her work at Story Corps.
Speaker 1: But that's not even her most impressive work. I think
Speaker 1: you could say her biggest prize is being married to
Speaker 1: Magda and she's here to play a very important life
Speaker 1: hex quiz. So welcome, Lizzie. Thanks, I'm so glad to
Speaker 1: be here. Now, before we put you to the test
Speaker 1: that why, why don't you take a minute to tell
Speaker 1: us about your new show, mash Up Americans. Yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 1: The Mash Up Americans is a show um hosted by
Speaker 1: two first generation Americans, Amy and Rebecca, and they just
Speaker 1: we like to talk and to and celebrate some of
Speaker 1: the most exciting mash ups in America today, and those
Speaker 1: are people who are first generation American, who are in
Speaker 1: mixed uh cultural couples, are from mixed cultural families, and
Speaker 1: just really about being at the inner ste action of
Speaker 1: culture where that is a very exciting place to be. So, Lizzie,
Speaker 1: I'm around your work a lot, so I know a
Speaker 1: little bit about this. But do you want to talk
Speaker 1: about some of the fun interviews you've been doing recently. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: We've We've gotten to talk to a lot of exciting people. Um.
Speaker 1: One of the really fun interviews was with Randall park
Speaker 1: Um from Fresh off the Boat. He's just so charming
Speaker 1: and he had this kim chi recipe that came to
Speaker 1: him from um, I can't remember his name, but a
Speaker 1: Jewish comedian and then he was like, but he's Korean,
Speaker 1: so then he had to make it his out and
Speaker 1: all this anyway, he was just like a totally lovely person.
Speaker 1: That was really fun. And then we had Dj Rika
Speaker 1: on talking about twenty years of Basement Bonga. Um, and
Speaker 1: that was super exciting um to talk with the woman
Speaker 1: who began at all about you know, the whole twenty years. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Basement Bonga was this huge event in New York City
Speaker 1: where all sorts of celebrities would come to do yeah,
Speaker 1: and it was the longest running ever night like nightclub night,
Speaker 1: twenty years. The only time they didn't open was after
Speaker 1: Hurricane Sandy because they literally there was no electricity. But
Speaker 1: other than that they were open well, you know, first
Speaker 1: Thursday of the month every every month. And even though
Speaker 1: I lived in New York for twelve years, I never
Speaker 1: went to it because I'm totally a nightlife low life,
Speaker 1: so I didn't never made it out, but I was
Speaker 1: excited to talk about it afterwards. That's pretty cool. What
Speaker 1: an interesting project, and no surprise, because you're always working
Speaker 1: on interesting projects. But I have to be honest, the
Speaker 1: reason that we brought you on today is because Mango
Speaker 1: says you shutter every time he says the words life hacks.
Speaker 1: Is this true? And if so, why do you hate
Speaker 1: them so much? I'm shuddering actively right now. I hate
Speaker 1: the word life hack, So I'm okay with like hacking, right,
Speaker 1: computer hacking, fine goods, you know, important to the world.
Speaker 1: Uh ikia hacks. I like that because there's a lot
Speaker 1: of good things you can do with those flat you know,
Speaker 1: flat pack boxes of furniture to make. But life hacks
Speaker 1: just always to me, seemed to reduce to some thing
Speaker 1: that some young dude just figured out and thinks he
Speaker 1: figured out, even though grandma's have been doing it forever.
Speaker 1: You know. It's just like I actually thought there was
Speaker 1: a life hack the other day about how to make
Speaker 1: tacos from tortillas. It's like, life hack, you can take
Speaker 1: tortillas and make tacos. It's like, yes, you can, because
Speaker 1: that's what they're made of. Like it was just a thing,
Speaker 1: you know, or life heck, you know, try to separate
Speaker 1: your laundry before you do it's like, yeah, your mom
Speaker 1: did that, you just didn't attention. So I find it
Speaker 1: to be kind of this like columbassy or you know,
Speaker 1: sort of like dutification of culture that bothers me. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Mango has got some pretty good ones. He
Speaker 1: had one the other day that if you feel you're
Speaker 1: spending too much time sitting at your desk, if you've
Speaker 1: eaten a banana that day, put it in your chair
Speaker 1: and then you won't feel like sitting down. I thought
Speaker 1: it was pretty good. I thought you're gonna say the
Speaker 1: banana it's smell so bad you had to get up
Speaker 1: and go to the trash can at least once. But
Speaker 1: now that that could be, and that's another like, Wow,
Speaker 1: you're good. I probably I'm probably bitter about them because
Speaker 1: I should just have a career as a life hack artist.
Speaker 1: Well it's a good thing, because I think we're about
Speaker 1: to put you to the test on these what what
Speaker 1: what game are you playing with, Lizzie Mango. It's called
Speaker 1: real advice from history or nonsense life hacks. We just
Speaker 1: made up perfect all right. So we're going to read
Speaker 1: a statement to you, and all you have to do
Speaker 1: is tell us whether it's actual advice from history or
Speaker 1: a nonsense life hack we just made up. You ready
Speaker 1: for these? I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Okay,
Speaker 1: here is number one. If you need to take a
Speaker 1: pie out of the oven, but don't have an oven
Speaker 1: mid handy, just use a metal dust pan to scoop
Speaker 1: up the pineton and keep it from over baking. This
Speaker 1: real or something we made up, I have to Can
Speaker 1: I ask a clarifying question here? No? Okay, so I'm
Speaker 1: just good answer. I'm gonna say that's real. Yeah, it's real.
Speaker 1: This came from sixty years ago and it works. But
Speaker 1: as household Hacker points out, you have to use a
Speaker 1: metal dust pan and not a plastic one, right because
Speaker 1: everyone has a metal dustpan, handy, and everyone wants to
Speaker 1: be sticking their dust pan in the oven. That is
Speaker 1: just pie right right? All right, Well, she's one for one.
Speaker 1: Here we go number two. To deal with shards of
Speaker 1: broken glass that you might not see while sweeping, spread
Speaker 1: a little cracked corn on your floor and invite a
Speaker 1: chicken or two into the house. Within a half hour,
Speaker 1: a hungry hen will eat both the seed and the glass,
Speaker 1: leaving a polished floor you can walk barefoot on. No,
Speaker 1: that's a nonsense, that's nonsense. Yeah, you know what, it's
Speaker 1: kind of not fair because Lizzie's used to your bowl
Speaker 1: man go to say this is she was able to
Speaker 1: read through that one. Okay too for two. Let's see
Speaker 1: how you do on number three to keep a beach
Speaker 1: umbrella standing upright in the sand? Stack five the ten
Speaker 1: bagels on top of one another on the ground and
Speaker 1: insert the umbrella poll through the bagels to give the
Speaker 1: base of the pole extra weight. That's a tough one. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it's nonsense. Yeah, it's nonsense. We made up.
Speaker 1: I was keeping my fingers crossed. Yes, it is nonsense.
Speaker 1: Okay too. Left. Number four. If you're doing work around
Speaker 1: the house, use an old potato as a pincushion to
Speaker 1: hold your nails, screws and totally. That's that's real. That's real. Supposedly,
Speaker 1: an old potato is a handy way to carry around
Speaker 1: your nails and screws without misplacing them on the floor
Speaker 1: and stepping on them. Yeah, and you always have an
Speaker 1: old potato, so perfect, all right. Last one, let's see
Speaker 1: if you can get a perfect score. Number five. An
Speaker 1: easy trick for slicing tough bread with a dull knife
Speaker 1: is to heat up a knife, so you just submerge
Speaker 1: it in boiling water. Then watch how easily it cuts
Speaker 1: through the loaf. Is this real or something we made up?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give that a real That sounds real to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's real. Advice and gives moto is actually recommended. This
Speaker 1: trick for slicing perfect cuts of cake as well. Oh
Speaker 1: so so mango. I think Lizzie may have as this one.
Speaker 1: How did she do? Yeah, she went five for five,
Speaker 1: which entitles her to a certificate of genius, which we'll
Speaker 1: put up on the fridge and I will use every day.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to share so many more lifects with
Speaker 1: the listeners. I hope you'll all check out mash Up Americans.
Speaker 1: But thanks again for joining us, Lizzie. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: part time Genius. Okay, so we'll what's your idea for
Speaker 1: making the workplace a little more bearable? All right? Two words?
Speaker 1: Coffee naps. Well you heard it here first, folks. Coffee
Speaker 1: and naps will make work easier apparently. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I didn't say coffee and naps. I say coffee naps.
Speaker 1: And this sounds crazy because we tend to think of
Speaker 1: caffeine as a way to stay awake, But if you
Speaker 1: drink some coffee right before you take a quick nap,
Speaker 1: you can actually maximize your brains alertness. So I hate
Speaker 1: this idea already because I love both coffee and napping
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't want to mix those experiences. I mean,
Speaker 1: to me, it's like when Costanza on Seinfeld tried to
Speaker 1: add sandwiches to and TV to his love making and
Speaker 1: it screwed everything up. But my kid cousin actually mentioned
Speaker 1: this to me, and uh that all his friends are
Speaker 1: actually doing in college. So I wonder why is this
Speaker 1: work all? Right? So, the way caffeine works is by
Speaker 1: clogging up receptors in your brain that are typically filled
Speaker 1: by a molecule called a denazine. The basically, brain activity
Speaker 1: produces a denazine and when enough of it builds up,
Speaker 1: it fills the gaps in the receptors and it creates
Speaker 1: this feeling of tiredness or fatigue. So the caffeine takes
Speaker 1: the place of the adnazine, which leaves your feeling wired
Speaker 1: rather than tired. Right, But it doesn't muscle out the
Speaker 1: adnazine or anything like that. Instead, what happens is the
Speaker 1: caffeine competes for the empty spots in these receptors. Keffne
Speaker 1: claims some of the spots and a denazine gets the others,
Speaker 1: and that why no amount of caffeine can stave off
Speaker 1: sleepiness completely. And eventually the adnazine filled receptors they will
Speaker 1: take their toll at some point. That's interesting it's almost
Speaker 1: like filling seats on a roller coaster or something. But
Speaker 1: why are coffee naps the way around that problem? Well,
Speaker 1: so sleep is the body's way of clearing out a denazine,
Speaker 1: and generally it takes about twenty minutes for caffeine to
Speaker 1: work its way through the bloodstream to the brain. So
Speaker 1: if you down some coffee and then immediately take a
Speaker 1: twenty minute nap, by the time the caffeine hits your brain,
Speaker 1: it'll have less a denazine to compete with. Then when
Speaker 1: you wake up, you'll feel way more alert than if
Speaker 1: you just had some coffee or just taken a nap.
Speaker 1: That's pretty ingenious. So I'll have to fight off my
Speaker 1: knee jerk reaction and try this sometime soon. So we've
Speaker 1: established that coffee naps can help you get through the day.
Speaker 1: But what else have you got? Well, no matter what
Speaker 1: kind of job you have, there's a good chance you
Speaker 1: wish it paid a little bit more than it does.
Speaker 1: And we can't help you na have a big rays
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But I do have a tip
Speaker 1: for how to save some of the money you've already made.
Speaker 1: It's a pretty simple one. Don't shop on your smartphone
Speaker 1: but it's always with you and that's part of the problem. So,
Speaker 1: according to some research from Dr Yean Zoo of the
Speaker 1: University of British Columbia, people take a different approach to
Speaker 1: shopping on a touch screen device than they do on
Speaker 1: a laptop or a desktop. She breaks down the distinction
Speaker 1: this way. She says, the touch screen has an easy
Speaker 1: to use interface that puts you into an experiential thinking style.
Speaker 1: When you're in an experiential thinking mode, you crave excitement,
Speaker 1: a different kind of experience. When you're on the desktop
Speaker 1: with all the work emails, that interface puts you in
Speaker 1: a rational thinking style. While you're in a rational thinking style,
Speaker 1: when you assess a product, you know you look for
Speaker 1: something with functionality and specific uses. So we're more likely
Speaker 1: to make frivlesus impulse buys on a smartphone and practical
Speaker 1: purchases on the PC pretty much. And and Zoo conducted
Speaker 1: an experiment where students were offered the same collection of
Speaker 1: products on an iPod touch and then on a desktop PC,
Speaker 1: and in both cases, students went for the more indulgent
Speaker 1: items on the iPod and more practical items on the PC.
Speaker 1: Isn't that wild? That's crazy? But apparently there's just something
Speaker 1: fun about the touch screen interface that encourages us to
Speaker 1: opt for more hedonistic purchases like movie tickets or pizza delivery.
Speaker 1: So if you're trying to save some cash, delete that
Speaker 1: Amazon app and step away from your smartphone. That's so funny,
Speaker 1: because like, we don't use things like seamless on our desktop,
Speaker 1: but we do use them on our phone. And I've
Speaker 1: had at ours and so we probably order more from it.
Speaker 1: But I would say, like, if the mere thought of,
Speaker 1: you know, separating yourself from your iPhone gives you separation anxiety,
Speaker 1: actually have one last money saving life act that I
Speaker 1: want to share as an alternative, And it's really good
Speaker 1: because if you do it right, you can turn one
Speaker 1: first class airplane ticket into an entire year's worth of
Speaker 1: free meals, one ticket into an entire year's worth of
Speaker 1: free meals, or this black magic of which you see mango.
Speaker 1: It's super simple and one I admire for its ingenuity,
Speaker 1: but also think it's a little shameful and we'll never
Speaker 1: use because I'd be way too embarrassed about it. Right,
Speaker 1: So what is it here? You goes, So, first, buy
Speaker 1: yourself a fully refundable first class ticket on your favorite
Speaker 1: airline and the destination doesn't matter at all because you're
Speaker 1: not actually going anywhere. Then, once you have your ticket,
Speaker 1: proceed directly to the swankiest v I p airport lounge
Speaker 1: you can find and stuff yourself with free food to
Speaker 1: your heart's content, and then prior to your departure you
Speaker 1: can probably guess what's coming. You exchange your ticket for
Speaker 1: a later day and come back and do the whole
Speaker 1: thing over and over. That is downright diabolical. And also
Speaker 1: there's no way this could ever work, so it already
Speaker 1: has some genius in China used this exact ploy a
Speaker 1: few years ago and he was able to pull it
Speaker 1: off without a hitch over three hundred times that year.
Speaker 1: No way three That is crazy. And the airline never
Speaker 1: got suspicious of the same dude changing his itinerary hundreds
Speaker 1: of times without ever taking a flight. Well, obviously, like
Speaker 1: that's eventually why he stopped. But uh, you want to
Speaker 1: know the best part, Like, since he was just exploiting
Speaker 1: a loophole and not actually breaking any rules, they couldn't
Speaker 1: do anything but ask and pull it to stop. Wow,
Speaker 1: And so so did he stop? Yeah? I mean he
Speaker 1: recognized that the jig was finally up, but he still
Speaker 1: had one less hand to play. He returned his ticket
Speaker 1: for a full refund. Oh my gosh, well played by
Speaker 1: this dude. And I know it's gonna be tough to
Speaker 1: top that one, but I still have a few life
Speaker 1: hacks I'm itching to try. Well, now's your chance, because
Speaker 1: it's time to celebrate the new year with the very
Speaker 1: first fact off of two. What luck. So you know,
Speaker 1: when a light bulb goes out, you can shake it
Speaker 1: and hear a little rattle and you know it's dead.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize there's a similar test for batteries. Like
Speaker 1: if you drop a battery on the floor and it bounces,
Speaker 1: it means it isn't fresh. Older dead batteries bounced, while
Speaker 1: newer ones just thud. Oh that's weird. That's pretty cool,
Speaker 1: all right. Well, if you're in a storm and the
Speaker 1: electricity goes out, do you know what works as a
Speaker 1: tiny candle? Crayola crayons. Now, your your kids may not
Speaker 1: love this, but you can actually burn them one by
Speaker 1: one to give yourself some light. And according to life hacker,
Speaker 1: they'll last you fifteen to thirty minutes each. So this
Speaker 1: is such a stupid life hack, but I love it
Speaker 1: because I hate getting my hand sticky or like frosting
Speaker 1: on my face. But if you have to eat a cupcake,
Speaker 1: take a knife and cut the bottom off and then
Speaker 1: press it to the top to turn it into a
Speaker 1: little cupcake sandwich. You're a great nickname for somebody. We
Speaker 1: need to decide who to call little cupcake Sandwich. Alright, Well,
Speaker 1: if you hate crying while cutting onions, you can try
Speaker 1: this trick. You just freeze them for fifteen minutes before
Speaker 1: you start slicing. Oh that's awesome. So I've actually tried
Speaker 1: so many tricks for cutting onions, from like wearing onion
Speaker 1: goggles to wedging some bread in front of your like
Speaker 1: top lip, and none of it works. So I can't
Speaker 1: wait to try this. But if you're drilling something into
Speaker 1: a wall, holding an open envelope under, the screw actually
Speaker 1: catches all the wall particles, so you don't have to
Speaker 1: sweep up after all. Right, Well, if you want to
Speaker 1: boil a lot of hard boiled eggs but you don't
Speaker 1: have a hot that's large enough, you just put them
Speaker 1: in the oven in a muffin tin. You bake them
Speaker 1: for thirty minutes at three and fifty degrees. You can
Speaker 1: actually do twenty four of these at a time and
Speaker 1: not have to worry about water boiling over. Oh I
Speaker 1: like that. So I know you've got a lot of
Speaker 1: sensitive documents on hand. And if you ever need a
Speaker 1: shredder but don't have access to a shredder, writer Lisa
Speaker 1: kada Yama suggests stuffing them into a stalking and then
Speaker 1: running them in a washing machine. And no one should
Speaker 1: be able to read your embarrassing love letters after Wow,
Speaker 1: you've really got to want to get rid of some
Speaker 1: letters to be willing to do that. That's good though, Well,
Speaker 1: you know we both love dumb life hacks, and not
Speaker 1: not that you're washing machine one was that was a
Speaker 1: very reasonable one. But I've got one that may be
Speaker 1: the dumbest. Then it comes from Gizmoto. So if you're
Speaker 1: tired of fighting for a handrail to hold onto in
Speaker 1: the subway, or you just don't want to deal with
Speaker 1: all those germs, as you know, I don't really like
Speaker 1: dealing with them, just bring a toilet plunger on the
Speaker 1: subway with you. All you have to do is you
Speaker 1: plunge it up to the ceiling of the train and
Speaker 1: you hold onto the handle. You don't have to fight
Speaker 1: anyone for space. It's such a brilliant idea, and I
Speaker 1: have no idea why I haven't thought of this. I
Speaker 1: love the idea of people commuting with their plungers just
Speaker 1: because they're like scared of germs instead of I don't know,
Speaker 1: like carrying hand sanitizer, no plunger. But I do think
Speaker 1: you win today's edition. I thought so. I knew that
Speaker 1: one was gonna take the crown. Well that's it for
Speaker 1: today's episode. Now, I know there are so many life
Speaker 1: facts that we didn't mention today, so we'd love to
Speaker 1: hear those from you guys. Feel free to email us
Speaker 1: part Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com. You
Speaker 1: can always call us on our seven fact hotline one
Speaker 1: eight four four pt Genius, or hit us up on
Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks again
Speaker 1: for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people
Speaker 1: who do the important things we couldn't even begin to understand.
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the
Speaker 1: theme song and does the MIXI mixy sound thing. Jerry
Speaker 1: Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay Blues Yer is
Speaker 1: our lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including
Speaker 1: Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve. Jeff
Speaker 1: Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
Speaker 1: and if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
Speaker 1: you could leave a good review for us. Did we
Speaker 1: forget Jason? Jason who