WEBVTT - What are some Easy Tricks to Improve Your Life in 2018? 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.680 Guess what will what's that go? So you know, I've 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:05.800 been obsessed with life hats forever and it all goes 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:08.080 back to this Wired article I read back in two 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:10.680 thousand and six. It was about this TV show in 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:14.520 Japan called The Edo Family Dinner Table, and the whole 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.440 show was just full of ridiculous little tips, like if 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:19.760 you don't have someone to water your plants when you're away, 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:22.840 just set them on a water soaked diaper and apparently 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:27.120 apparently the plant slowly absorbs the water over vacation. Or 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:29.560 if you want to turbocharge your sled, you can spray 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:32.879 some nonstick PAM under the sled. But my favorite thing 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:36.640 from it is how to immediately become more flexible. I 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:38.800 can't wait, and so, so what's the trick here? Well, 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.360 if you can't touch your toes, instead of just leaning over, 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:43.720 if you take both arms and point them out at 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.440 ninety degrees to one side, and then you slowly windmill 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:49.440 them around all the way to your toes, you can 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.400 actually get closer to touching your toes. It's incredible. I 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:55.960 kind of thought this one was gonna involve PAM as well, 0:00:56.040 --> 0:00:58.400 like under your feet, so you just slipped out into 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:01.240 a split. That would be great too, But since it's 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.120 a new year, we thought what better way to embrace 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:05.640 our best selves than trick and cheat our way to results. 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:08.360 So that's what today's show is all about. Let's dig 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:32.319 in aither podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:34.160 Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.319 friend Man Guesh Ticketer and sitting behind that soundproof glass 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:41.720 running the audio equipment from a handcrafted Nordic tractor. That's impressive. 0:01:42.160 --> 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 --> 0:01:49.000 ringing in two thousand eighteen with a look at some 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:51.960 unusual ways to better your life in the year ahead. 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:54.520 So we're gonna check out some fun life hacks like 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:56.720 you know, how to beat an ice cream headache. Will 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.320 also get a bit more ambitious with ideas like how 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:01.160 to be a better sner, or how to cram a 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.560 year's worth of trash into a single Mason jar, and 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.080 of course, to start the second year of ptg off Right, 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:09.760 We've also got a ridiculous quiz lined up as well. 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:12.360 So who's playing today Mango. Yeah. Today, we're gonna have 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.600 a very special guest, my wife, Lizzie Jacobs. She's been 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.000 producing a fun new show for American public media called 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:21.200 Mash Up Americans. But she also hates whenever I talk 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:23.440 about life hacks, so we'll give her a little quiz 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:25.440 about him. All right, So to get us started, I 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.800 thought we should acknowledge the inspiration for today's show, which 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.079 is the age old practice of making New Year's resolutions. 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:35.480 That's something humans have done for thousands of years, going 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.160 all the way back to ancient Rome, when Julius Caesar 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:42.160 rejiggered the calendar and named January one the starting point 0:02:42.200 --> 0:02:44.919 for each new year, and sees her name the first 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.679 month in honor of the two face god Janice, who 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.239 was believed to look both backwards at the previous year 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:54.320 and boards into the future. So by offering sacrifices and 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.440 making promises to be good, ancient Romans hoped to win 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:01.160 janice favor in the year ahead. Right, So fast forward 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.240 a few millennia to today, and every January, a little 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:07.679 over half the population pledges to lose weight, or quit smoking, 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:10.320 or I don't know, spend more time outdoors. All in 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:12.239 the hopes of making the new year better than the 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.720 last one. And you know, this last for about a 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.800 month or so until our old habits kicked back and 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.120 and we're right back to where we started. Yeah, I 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.120 guess without the threat of you know, Janice looming over us, 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:25.919 maybe people's resolve isn't what it used to be. Then 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.680 is blaming on Janice? But everything on Janice, according to 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:33.000 the University of Scranton, where the people who make resolutions 0:03:33.000 --> 0:03:35.520 fail to keep them. And of course I'm guilty of 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:37.160 this every year when I claim I'm going to write 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.600 my friends more or finish my novel which is tentatively 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:43.200 titled How to Write Your Friends More. But the main 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:45.400 reason for that low success rate is that we set 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.920 ourselves up for failure by choosing goals that we're already 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.760 bad achieving. Yeah, you know, it's weird because we tend 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.080 to go for things that we've already tried and failed at, 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:55.840 you know, during the past year or so, whether that's 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.520 going to the gym more often or eating better whatever 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:01.000 it might be. Right, And so the science actually shows 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.600 us that we get a sense of satisfaction just from 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.240 the idea of accomplishing a difficult goal, which is why 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:08.960 so many people like making resolutions. In the moment, we 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:11.360 feel good about saying that we're gonna lose weight this year, 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.480 and we predict that will still feel that way in 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:16.440 the future. But then when it's actually time to follow through, 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.080 that initial happy feeling is faded, and suddenly the prospect 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.119 of running three miles a day or whatever it doesn't 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.440 sound like fun anymore. Well, I'm glad you say that, 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:27.240 because this actually brings us to our first life act, 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:29.719 because there just might be a way to make ourselves 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.840 think more concretely about the future. And this comes from 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:35.960 the research of how Hirshfield, who's a marketing professor at 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:38.520 u c l A School of Management. So they're using 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:42.000 fm r I scans and they discovered that people process 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:45.240 information about their future selves in a different part of 0:04:45.240 --> 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 --> 0:04:53.040 that this part of the brain that's associated with future 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:56.200 selves is actually the same one that's connected to thoughts 0:04:56.240 --> 0:05:01.159 about strangers. Wait, so are we actually thinking or seeing 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.680 our future selves as strangers? I mean, we kind of are, actually, 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.680 But but this is where things get interesting because there 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:11.000 was a different study and Hirshfield was looking at students 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:15.120 and having them examined digitally age pictures of themselves. An 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.120 amazingly test show that this helped the students develop more 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:21.039 empathy for their future selves. Isn't that kind of strange? 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:23.480 And so when this happened, they were less likely to 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.960 procrastinate on things like studying for exams. And so apparently, 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.080 if we can make our future sells feel less like strangers, 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.440 we can actually use that motivation to better accomplish goals 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.520 in the present. That's so bizarre, And I thought you 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:38.440 were going to tell us just to make more manageable 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:40.120 goals like this, yere A'm gonna learn to make an 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.360 omelet or something, but you should, though, you should learn 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.279 to make someday. But you're saying if you want to 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.159 keep your New Year's resolution and just get in touch 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.240 with your future self, right, which I mean, I guess 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:52.279 it's actually pretty easy now with us like old define 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:54.360 an aging booth or whatever. Yeah, you can get super 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:56.800 old and seconds. It's pretty neat. But you know, as 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.560 we mentioned, one of the most common resolutions people make 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.320 is to exercise more often. I know, when we were 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:05.440 in college, you always would say, I'm gonna start lifting 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.920 weights on Monday, but then you can just go play basketball, 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:10.480 and then it was Tuesday and you'd have to wait 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:12.960 until the next Monday. I know, the basketball is so 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.719 much more fun. Well, if if you want a better 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.800 shot at enjoying that workout, Actually, here's another hack, and 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.080 it's it's a quick science tip that says, just smile 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.000 and seriously, like the whole thing comes from this long 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.360 standing belief among some athletes that smiling while exercising makes 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.520 the workout feel easier and it turns out there right. 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.960 So there's a study done earlier this year and researchers 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:37.960 from Ireland and Wales teamed up to see if a 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:42.320 group of recreational runners performed better while smiling or scowling. 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.320 And the whole smile factor was downplayed to the runners, 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:47.279 you know, just so it didn't skew the outcome of 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:49.719 the test, and so they were only told that the 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:54.359 experiment would test factors relating to quote running economy, which is, 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.360 you know, how much oxygen someone uses to run at 0:06:57.360 --> 0:06:59.479 a given speech, So you can almost think of it 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:01.880 like all economy, like how much gas do you need 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.719 to get somewhere. So first, the researchers measured the runners 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:09.800 under normal circumstances. They weren't given any special instructions or 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:12.200 any techniques. They just had to run on a treadmill 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.880 until they were exhausted. Then, on a different day, each 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.960 of the runners undertook a series of four six minute runs, 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:23.640 using a different approach each time, some including smiling or 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:27.400 frowning continuously through the run. And I mean, it seems 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.480 like you're telegraphing this like that, the smiling runners outpaced 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.040 the frown ears. Well, not across the board. I mean, 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.240 a few of the volunteers actually did best while frowning, 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.000 and the researchers suggested that this might have been because 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.800 those frowns were like their game faces, you know that 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:43.840 game face you get on when every time we're about 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.080 to start a podcast, and that may be helped their 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:51.360 you know, determination to perform well. But the most economical 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.320 results came when the runners smiled, and so the group's 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.160 running economy was as much as two point seven eight 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.800 percent higher during the smiling runs than it was during 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.600 the others. That's crazy, So do we have any idea 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.400 why that is? Well, according to the lead researcher, the 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:11.400 smiling likely helped prompt this reduction and muscular tension. Now 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:14.360 there's one catch to this, because the smiling has to 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.760 be sincere, you can't fake it, So most of the 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.480 runners smiles became more unnatural the longer the session went on, 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:25.760 trying to run six minutes with a sincere smile on 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:28.200 your face. So if you want to boost your performance 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:32.040 while running, it's best to smile sincerely mango. In fact, 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.160 one researcher suggests that you save your smile from near 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.760 the end of the race and then use it in 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:40.360 thirty second burst. You know, so you don't wear out 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:43.000 that sincerity. I love that you can just pocket into 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:46.560 sincerity and then pull it small, InCor plan. There's nothing 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.959 more sincere than planning out your thirty second smiles. It's 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.720 all over my Google calendars. Here's one for any listener 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:56.240 who wants to be a better performer but doesn't actually 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:58.800 want to break a sweat. So the next time you're 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:00.920 at a karaoke bar and you need to hit a 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.520 high note in your soulful rendition of I don't know 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.480 my heart will go on, just try lifting a potted 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.880 plant over your head as you sing. So if people 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:12.800 don't look ridiculous enough doing karaoke, you know you might 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:14.200 you might want to add a fern to the mix. 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:16.760 I guess here, Well, it doesn't have to be a plant. 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.600 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 --> 0:09:27.200 But basically that weight makes your muscles tense up, which 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.439 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 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.600 impress all the people who would have otherwise thought you foolish. 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.480 All right, well I will, I'll keep that one in mind. Mega. So, 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:41.720 staying on the subject to sound, did you know that 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.640 our left and right ears are actually each equipped to 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.640 hear different kinds of sound. So our right ears are 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.959 better suited for deciphering speech patterns, while our left ears 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:54.560 are better with musical qualities like pitch or timber or loudness. 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:56.840 You know what. I've read a little bit about this, 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:58.680 and I might be mixing up the sides here, but 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.280 isn't the idea that the right ear is paired with 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:04.120 the left hemisphere of the brain, which is the side 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.880 that's better at processing verbal information. Right, Yeah, you're completely right. 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.680 So weirdly, the same kind of right ear preference shows 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:12.840 up another species. I was reading about this earlier, and 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:18.199 it's common for rats and dogs and also sea lions. 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.480 But one really cool thing I found out is that, uh, 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:23.319 even apart from its left brain connection, our right ear 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.280 is also physically better for hearing speech. So what do 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:28.680 you mean by that? So this comes from this joint 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.560 research effort from u c l A and the University 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.360 of Arizona. But when you hear a sound, the tiny 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:37.720 cells in your ear expand and contract to amplify the vibrations, 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.680 and then inside these inner hair cells convert the vibrations 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:44.199 and send them to the brain. And that's simplistic, but 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:46.319 that's kind of how your ear works. But the team 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.480 measured the hearing of three thousand newborns using two different 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:52.559 kinds of sound, and they looked at these rapid clicks 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:55.560 like those found in speech, and then sustained tones like 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:58.440 those found in music. And the results showed that the 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:02.280 left ear actually gave extra amplification for tones like music, 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.520 while the right ear did the same thing for sounds 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.200 like speech. So the weird thing is that your auditory 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.560 processing really begins with the ear itself, and that's before 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:12.720 your brain gets involved. And if you want to be 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:14.560 a better listener, all you have to do is make 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:16.880 sure you're using the correct ear for whatever you're trying 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.240 to hear. That is pretty neat, and I guess helpful 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:21.199 when you're at a cocktail party to know which side 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:22.960 of your face you need to really lean in with. 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:24.920 I always think about which side of the pace got 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:27.480 lean this side of my face and really hard here. 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:29.640 But it actually reminds me of something else that that 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.439 we're a little too quick to attribute to our brains, 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.680 and that's the all too familiar pain of brain freeze. 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.200 So I think I know where you're going with this, 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:40.480 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. 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.480 But in the words of Kanye, I'm gonna let you finish. 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.120 Thanks Kanye. Al Right, So, as I was saying, most 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.000 people go along with the brain freeze name and assume 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.440 the pain is in their brain, which is why you 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.200 know we instinctively grab our heads or start rubbing our 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:58.920 temples when we scarf down ice cream or or during 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:02.479 something really cold, but there actually aren't any pain receptors 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:05.200 in the brain at all. Instead, scientists think the pain 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:07.439 is due to these spasms brought on by the quick 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:09.880 cooling of blood vessels in the back of the throat. 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:12.800 So the next time you need to relieve that brain freeze, 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.160 you can drink something warm or just place your tongue 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.480 against the roof of your mouth and that helps warm 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.599 up those blood vessels and gets the brain freeze to 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:21.480 go away. Yeah, so that's the trick, I know, Just 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:23.120 shove your tongue against the roof of your mouth and 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:27.120 that headache just melts away. But um, this isn't something 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:29.040 I'm gonna tell my kids. But there's also another way 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.800 to lesten that pain, and that's to use swear words. 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.640 I love how we're talking about resolutions for two thousand 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:36.319 and eighteen, and a good one maybe to get your 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.440 your kids to swear more. Yeah, I mean they're already 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:42.000 from New York's right, But this is a real thing. 0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.760 So according to a study at Keel University, people who 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:48.160 curse freely can endure pain almost fifty longer than those 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.240 who watch their language. Yeah, and and the researchers had 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:54.559 sixty volunteers stick their hand into tub of freezing water 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:57.080 for as long as they could while repeating their favorite 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.199 swear word. Then they repeated the experiment, but they got 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:03.559 to use a benign word instead, and shockingly, the volunteer, 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.560 as you swore, endured nearly two minutes of pain, while 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:09.040 those who use the benign words or something like eggplant 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:11.840 over and over and over, they lasted just a minute 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:15.760 and fifteen seconds. That is wild, and that's a huge difference. 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:19.880 So do researchers know why cursing, you know, lessons to pain? Yeah, 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.280 they're not exactly sure, but their best guess is that 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.320 the swearing helps us downplay the threat in order to 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:28.160 overcome it. But the curious part is that the curses 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.160 kind of have to mean something. So, just like your 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.319 smile earlier, if you want to lessen your pain by swearing, 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:35.960 you have to limit your casual curses. And as the 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.200 researcher put it, swearing his emotional language. But if you 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.920 overuse it, it loses its emotional attachment. Well, all things 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:45.520 in moderation, I guess, all right, Well, before we get 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:47.360 into more life facts, why don't we take a quick 0:13:47.400 --> 0:14:02.640 break if you're listening to Part Time Genius and we're 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.200 talking about some quirky ideas to make life a little 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:07.679 bit easier. So mago I mentioned this upfront that we 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:10.199 would cover some life as that may be a bit 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:12.800 more ambitious than using dental floss to slice up a 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:14.960 cake or some of the other really silly things you 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.319 find if you're looking online for life hacks. But I 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:19.680 almost love the dumb and useless life hacks as much 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.880 as the good one. Like there was this one that said, uh, 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.440 never forget where you park your car in a parking lot, 0:14:25.880 --> 0:14:29.680 just tie helium balloon to the antenna. That's good and 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:31.680 I love that, like it just assumes that you always 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:34.920 have freshly filled helium balloons up course, of course, And 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:37.400 there was this other one where where you turn your 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:39.560 hoodie around so the hoodie parts in front of you 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:44.520 and it's considered an accessible snack pocket. So the picture 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:46.640 I had this like fresh popcorn in the hood in 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:48.920 front of this coder so that he could just borrow 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:51.080 his face in the popcorn whenever he needed to bite. 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:53.240 And that was also he didn't have to move his hands. 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.440 It's so dumb. I could totally see that being marketed 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.640 toward coders, that's pretty sure, although I will say that 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.120 those kind of life hacks do kind of give life 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:04.200 hacks a bad name, especially when you compare them to 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:06.800 things that are really useful. You know, like how hand 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.440 sanitizer gets tree sap off your hands, which he's actually 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:12.920 pretty useful when you're bringing in Christmas trees or getting 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:15.000 rid of them, and otherwise you kind of have to 0:15:15.000 --> 0:15:18.720 sit there for like fifteen minutes just hands in scalding water. 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.000 Hate the stickiness of tree sticks. Can't stand sticky at all, 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.760 and much less tree sap, so it drives me crazy. 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:27.800 And then there was that trash hack that you told 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:29.920 me about that that I think also fits the bill here. 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:31.880 Do you want to talk us through that one? Definitely? 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.960 And so this one is related to this zero waste 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:37.800 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 --> 0:15:41.920 we produce on an individual level. And to give you 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.040 an idea of why this might be necessary, consider the 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.960 fact that the average American produces about four point five 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:50.200 pounds of trash each day, which is over six hundred 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.600 pounds per year. Ah, that is a ton of trash. 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.760 Actually literally, that is almost a ton of trash that 0:15:56.880 --> 0:16:00.840 every single person produces. It's crazy. So obviously, with a 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:03.280 population as large as ours, that kind of trash production 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:06.520 adds up fast. So here's a clever way to reduce 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.160 your role in the problem. Stuff in entire year's worth 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:13.080 of your garbage into a single Mason jar. Yeah. I 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.920 mean it might sound crazy, but that's what Lauren Singer did, 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.640 and it completely changed the way she looks at trash. Well, 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.920 if Lauren Singer did it. Who is Lauren Singer. She's 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.960 a graduate from n y USE Environmental Science program, and 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.040 she runs this blog about sustainability called Trash Is for Tossers. 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.360 And a few years ago, a Singer got impressed because 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:34.440 she realized that her interest in living sustainably hadn't extended 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.120 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 --> 0:16:44.320 that every single thing I had in there was packaged 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:47.440 in plastic. So she made this decision to go plastic 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:49.680 free and started making other changes in the life to 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:53.040 live a less wasteful life, and so that's where the 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.200 mason jar comes in. Yeah, that that was kind of 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:57.280 her way of keeping crack with the small amounts of 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.160 waste that she just couldn't shake because like, even though 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.040 she's sworn off buying I don't know, package goods and 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:06.159 and plastic and whatever, there's still some random bits of 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:09.320 paper and plastic that can't be recycled or composted. So 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:11.360 if you think about like fruit often comes with these 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:13.840 little stickers, or the bits of plastic used to connect 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.200 the price tag deer clothing, all of that's unavoidable waste 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.359 and that goes into her trustees sixteen ounce mason jar. Wow. 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.480 But so she crams a full year's worth of garbage 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.840 into just one jar. How is that possible? She's actually 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:29.159 even more efficient than that. So Singer claims to have 0:17:29.280 --> 0:17:32.440 used the same jar for four years straight way. Yeah, 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:34.800 and if that's true, it means she's personally saved over 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.520 six thousand pounds of trash from heading to a landfill. 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.560 I think she's hiding her trash somewhere, but that is 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:42.840 incredible if this is true. But it also sounds like 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.840 one of those resolutions that's too hard to achieve. So 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:47.800 on the blog or anywhere else that this singer have 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.080 any tips for people who are just starting to consider 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:52.520 how to cut down their trash or yeah, she she's 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.800 got a whole process later out. So she suggests people 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.040 start by getting to know their trash, kind of like 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:59.280 what she did by looking at her fridge and examining 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.040 that she had too much plastic packaging. But once you've 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:04.439 identified what kind of trash you produced the most of, 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.199 you can start looking for solutions and ways to reduce it. 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:09.920 So if you think about the fact that like you're 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:12.840 throwing out a lot of wasted food, you can start 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:16.119 composting or or maybe change the way you grocery shops 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.000 so you're doing it more often but buying less each time, 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:20.680 and that way you don't end up with all this 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.480 excess food you can't use. But then the next step 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:26.359 is to make smarter daily choices. And this is just 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:30.439 little stuff like bringing reusable bags or coffee mugs with 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.240 you when you're on about, or you know, refusing plastic 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.600 straws when you get offered them. But Singer's biggest advice 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.159 is to transition to a d I Y approach, and 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:40.919 this is the one we'll all get held up on. 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:45.000 But it's things like making your own cleaning products using 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.640 apple cider vinegar, or baking soda or using citrus juice. 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.280 For that, Wow, I mean that is interesting. And for 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.480 me making your own cleaning products, that does feel like 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:57.680 a big hurdle to getting a percent there, So I'm 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.280 just not gonna try it all. But I mean, honestly, 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.720 I do admire the commitment. One thing I do find 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:06.000 appealing about singers single jar approaches just how much it 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:09.840 limits her options because only allowing yourself such a tiny 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.560 space for trash, it really restricts your choices, you know, 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:14.840 for what you can consume exactly Like you might look 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:17.280 at a box of oreos that look delicious, but you 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:19.199 quickly realize how much less work you have to do 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.040 by eating an apple. Yeah, and that's another tip for 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:24.920 improving your lifestyle, and that is to limit your options. 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:28.440 It sounds counterintuitive, but when it comes to choice, less 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:32.040