WEBVTT - What’s the Best Day of the Week? 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:00.720 Guess what, Mango? 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:01.359 What's that will? 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:01.480 So? 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:03.200 I know I've told you about this before, but when 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:05.400 I was six or seven, I used to sneak into 0:00:05.440 --> 0:00:08.039 my sister's room and listen to her latest albums on 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.039 her fancy double cassette playing Boom bofe. I have told 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:13.400 you about this, definitely, and she was in high school 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:15.480 at the time, so I was introduced to all the 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.720 important stuff this way. It was Michael Jackson's Thriller. I 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:20.880 think that was my favorite, though it did come out 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:24.280 a few years earlier. We were talking nineteen eighty six, 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:26.960 and some of the biggest hits there was Madonna's Papa 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.200 Don't Preach, Janet Jackson's what have You Done for Me Lately? 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.320 Bon Jovies, You give love a bad name, Cindy Lauper's 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:36.440 True Colors. I mean, the list goes on. 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:38.279 And on, and you're playing to name them all. I'm 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:39.440 guessing I could. 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:41.280 I could. And we're not talking about any of that 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:43.240 Lionel Richie stuff that I had to listen to in 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:46.200 my mom's Toyota Cressida. This was the good stuff. 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.120 That's so much revolutionary music at such a young age. 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.080 I know, I know, well, one of them that I 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.760 haven't mentioned yet is the Bengals manic Monday, And if 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.120 you remember, Susannah Haas was clearly frustrated because she was 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:02.280 having this dream about Kiss Valentino and then her stupid 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.840 alarm goes off and of course is just another man Monday. 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:08.680 I mean she she wished it was Sunday because as 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:11.720 you know, that that's her fun day. But no, it 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:15.720 was it was Monday. It was Monday. Tragic. Yeah, I mean, 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:18.560 I learned so much from my sister's music collection. We 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:20.479 might even have to do an episode on this at 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.280 some point, but the lesson was clear. She did not 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:26.840 like Monday. She wasn't alone. I mean, there are obviously 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.920 days that we learned to like and dislike pretty much universally. 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.360 And when one of our brilliant researchers, Autumn white Field Madrano, 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:35.800 asked the question a few weeks ago, what are the 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.520 best and worst days of the week, I thought, well, 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:40.720 I know what the Bengals would say, but what does 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.080 science say and how did the whole seven day week 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:45.360 come to be in the first place. So these are 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:46.880 just a couple of the things we're going to talk 0:01:46.920 --> 0:02:08.720 about today. Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:10.880 I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.320 good friend mangesh Hu Tiketing, and on the other side 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.320 of that soundproof glass is our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.239 Now today we're asking the question what's the best day 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.560 of the week, you know, according to science? And maybe 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:23.480 we'll throw in a few opinions here and there as well. 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:25.520 Yeah, this one could turn into a heated debate. 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:27.880 Well, we'll see. But before we get started, I wanted 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.520 to recognize a few winners from our Weirdest College Courses episode, 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.200 you know, where we asked listeners to tell us the 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:35.040 weirdest college classes they'd taken. 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:36.359 You remember this, Yeah, definitely? 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:38.359 All right. Here are the top three, all of whom 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.560 will be getting Part Time Genius t shirts. The first 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:45.640 one comes from Alicio Martinez. The class was called Math 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:47.800 in Square Dancing. Yeah. 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:48.720 I thought this is awesome. 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.560 I was taught at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:53.680 and I don't know how anyone hadn't really thought about 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:56.720 how to combine two universally love things, you know, math 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.760 and square dancing. It's pretty great, all right, I like 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:03.160 that so you'll be getting one Alicio Now, Yvonne Jones 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:07.480 a class called Goldberg's Cannon Making Whoopee at Baits College. 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.760 This is great. It's about all about the lifetime work 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.280 of Whoopy Goldberg. That's such a good class, all right. 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.280 And then the third one from Rachel Shine, a class 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:19.880 called snow Skiing at Texas A and M. Now, it 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:22.280 doesn't seem that weird of a class, right, but as 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.440 she explained, there was no snow and there were no 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.360 mountains or hills. It was taught on AstroTurf and it 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.160 was usually hot, so they wore shirts and t shirts 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.520 and shorts. That great, all right. So those are our 0:03:35.520 --> 0:03:37.800 top three. It's so much fun to hear from you guys. 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.400 Congrats to our winners. Remember to keep the interesting facts 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:43.280 coming to part time Genius at HowStuffWorks dot com or 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:45.600 find us on Facebook or Twitter. You can also call 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.480 our twenty four to seven fact hotline one eight four 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:52.840 four pt genius. All right, let's dive in. But you know, 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:54.880 I think we need to start by acknowledging what a 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:56.360 strange thing a week is. 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:57.960 So what do you mean by that? 0:03:58.200 --> 0:03:59.880 I mean, well, it's one of those things that Honestly, 0:03:59.920 --> 0:04:02.200 I hadn't thought that much about before one of our 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.080 terrific researchers, Autumn, pointed it out. And that's the fact 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.120 that a week is this imperfect human created unit of 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:10.800 time that falls in between two units of time that 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.040 nature dictates. So you have the day dictated by Earth's 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.839 rotation on the shorter side, and then you've got the 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.760 month that's roughly dictated by the lunar cycle on the 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:20.240 longer end. 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.400 Yeah, it's definitely weird and doesn't pretty much the whole 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:23.960 world uses seven day week now. 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.400 Yeah, even in places that don't use the Gregorian calendar, 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:29.799 you find that they're using this too, And it's something 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.320 we'll talk about in a bit. And that's how contemporary 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.280 weeks are built around pivotal days. And even though you 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.000 might find the pivotal days being different from one society 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:41.080 to another, there's still some peak that's constant and the 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:42.800 rest of the week is built around that. 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:45.440 Well, we should definitely talk about why the world settled 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:47.680 on a seven day week, but first can we look 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.280 at why creating a unit of time that functions between 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.920 a day and a month is so problematic. I mean, 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:54.839 the fact is there's no way to divide up that 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.080 time evenly in a way that it occurs regularly. A 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.480 lunar cycle is twenty nine points five days long, meaning 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.520 that if we made all months thirty days leading to 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.920 you know, ten day weeks, we'd still be off. It's 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.480 just such a strange thing. No matter what you propose 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:12.640 as a replacement for the seven day week, there's gonna 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:13.800 be some irregularity. 0:05:14.000 --> 0:05:15.800 Yeah, and the ten day week thing has definitely been 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.280 tried plenty of times. Yeah, it was interesting to get 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:20.360 a refresh on this during our research and to see 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.880 how earlier societies tried to address the irregularities. In some 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:25.839 they just solve the issue kind of how we do 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.160 with leap ears, Like the ancient Greeks had these ten 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.120 day periods and occasionally they just be nine days long 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:33.960 to make the adjustments. Yeah, and at first glance, you'd 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.080 think that using a ten day or a five day 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:38.760 week could more closely pull off an even division of 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:40.640 the lunar month, you know, more so than our seven 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.880 day weeks. And that's true, but then you have another problem. 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:47.040 Oh yeah, this is fascinating. You're talking about temporal regularity. 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.440 Yeah, exactly, so eviantar Zera Babbel. He's the author of 0:05:50.440 --> 0:05:53.000 a book called The Seven Day Circle, and he talks 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:55.719 about how temporal regularity is such an important part of 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.839 the development of human race. And as he puts it, quote, imagine, 0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:04.039 for example, having to cancel regular Sunday family gatherings or 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.880 Tuesday classes every month or so due to the lack 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:10.000 of a Sunday or a Tuesday on that particular week. 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.159 I guess it's kind of similar to what leaplings have 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:13.840 to deal with, you know, those people who were born 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.960 on February twenty ninth, except it would happen far more regularly, 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:19.640 and it also be so much more inconvenient. 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:21.839 Oh definitely. I mean, imagine how difficult it would be 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:24.800 to coordinate activities that should happen more than monthly, but 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.120 less than daily. I mean, right now, it's just so 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:29.839 easy to remember something like, you know, I've got soccer 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.080 practice on Tuesdays or something like that. 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.720 I mean, there'd be some clear adjusting there. But as 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:37.440 Zara Bavo points out, it's one thing to think about 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.000 the weekday's tethered to sport or hobby, but it gets 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.000 even more important when you're thinking about it. For basic survival. Like, 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:45.159 let's say you had to ride to town a couple 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.080 of times a month just to get provisions from the 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.640 farmer's market. If it takes you two hours to get 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:51.960 to town, you definitely want to be sure that when 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.279 you get there the market's open. So knowing that the 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.479 markets on Wednesdays takes care of that and allows you 0:06:57.520 --> 0:06:58.080 to make plans. 0:06:58.160 --> 0:06:59.560 Yeah, I mean it makes a lot of sense, and 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:02.280 it's weird that we don't often stop to think about it. 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:04.839 I mean, the week is the longest unit of time 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.640 that's not it all dependent on nature. So it's pretty 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:10.920 significant as far as a philosophical shift in our development. 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:13.080 And in a way, it's like our way of saying 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:15.840 that we're ready to stop solely depending on nature and 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.040 instead begin to establish our temporal rhythms around a unit 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:21.720 that we created. And it is worth noting that there's 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:25.600 no compelling evidence of any major seven day biological processes 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.000 in nature. I mean, there does appear to be a 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:31.200 form of algae that's used to study circadian rhythm because 0:07:31.480 --> 0:07:34.760 it has exhibited signs of some seven day biological rhythms, 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:36.880 but it's a bit of a stretch to think that 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:39.000 it's played into how we think about time in any 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:39.560 real way. 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:41.320 Yeah, that definitely sounds like a stretch. 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.240 All right, well, let's talk about the creation of the 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:45.680 seven day week. I know you did some digging into 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:48.360 this with a ton of great help from our researcher Autumn, 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:49.200 So tell us what you know. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.960 Sure, well, this can actually be its own episode because 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:54.680 it's an interesting history. But to boil it down, it 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:57.600 was really the result of early Jewish cultures and Babylonian 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:02.640 astronomy thinking up. So, as you know, Judaism was focused 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:04.880 on a seven day cycle as depicted in the Torah, 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:07.080 you know, seventh day of rest and all that, and 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.000 the other six days were really just days leading up 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.520 to the Sabbath. Then you have the Babylonians who'd come 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:14.880 up with the idea that the seven celestial bodies that 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.400 moved across the sky, that they had certain effects on 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.160 everything humans did. Five of these were planets as we 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.240 know them now, and the other two were the Sun 0:08:22.280 --> 0:08:24.240 and the moon, but still seven. 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:26.760 So the Babylonians they also had a seven day cycle. 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:29.080 No, I mean, at least there's no evidence of that. 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.240 But here's how they came together. In the second century BCE, 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.600 the Alexandrians brought together three beliefs that were pretty firm 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:37.880 at that point. The first was, you've got these seven 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:40.600 planets which came into particular order, and then you had 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.960 the twenty four hour day. And third there's this idea 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.319 that the planet that ruled the first hour of each 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.200 day ruled the entire day. It didn't take too long 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:52.000 for the set of beliefs to run smack dab into Judaism, 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:54.679 and the two sets of beliefs sanked up. By the 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:57.520 end of the first century CE, the Sabbath again the 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.240 only day that really mattered to the Jewish cycle, and 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.880 the day of Saturn, just one of those seven planets 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.040 in Babylonian astrology were one and the same. And by 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:08.880 the third century see the week was pretty widespread. 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.040 Yeah, and the seven day cycles stuck and was gradually 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.200 adopted by pretty much everyone. Though this isn't to say 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:17.240 that there weren't a couple of pretty big attempts to 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.360 implement different systems. I was actually curious to see who 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:22.560 had tried to come up with better systems over time, 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:24.880 and found a couple of good stories that, to be honest, 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.760 I'd actually forgotten about from history class. Oh yeah, like what, 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:30.560 all right, well, let's start. Let's start with the French 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:34.600 Republicans after the French Revolution. During the revolution, assembly members 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.320 decided to come up with a new calendar, still with 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:39.920 twelve months, but they wanted to make the other time 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.079 units as close to metric as they could. So each 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.400 month had three ten day weeks. Each day would have 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.760 ten hours divided into one hundred minutes each, and each 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:52.480 minute would have one hundred seconds. I mean, it's actually 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:54.920 so confusing to think about this. Then there would be 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:56.599 five or six days left at the end of the 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.680 year that would be reserved for a celebration. It is 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.120 interesting to note that this system is very similar to 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.480 what the Egyptians had created when they became the first 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:06.400 civilization to create weeks. 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:08.559 Which is all super interesting and I so want to 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.080 get into a time machine and witness those celebrations. It 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:13.680 sounds really fun. But you can see how that structure 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:15.720 could make sense if it's what people had been used to. 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:17.719 But given that they were used to a seven day 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.360 calendar with twenty four hours per day, it was probably 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:22.400 pretty confusing. Why they even attempt this. 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:23.960 Well, there were a couple of reasons I mean that 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:26.719 the Biggie beyond just being a more rational system as 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:29.000 they saw it, it was that they wanted this very 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:31.920 real new beginning, you know, kind of a break from 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:32.400 the past. 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:35.160 And obviously that didn't last forever. So how long did 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:35.920 it last around? 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:38.520 I honestly find it surprising that it lasted as long 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:40.960 as it did. It was around twelve years, and it 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:44.080 was just too confusing for everyone, especially because so many 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.800 refused to stop keeping track of the old calendar. Even 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.439 find reports that when newspapers were required by a law 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.640 equip publishing the old date alongside the new one, people 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.120 were still using the old calendar to keep track of 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:59.520 certain important dates, and of course, to observe their holy days. 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:02.600 Many of them would take that day of rest along 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.400 with the scheduled day of rest, and ultimately there were 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.400 just too many days with little significance in between these 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:10.720 anchor days, and so finally it was scrapped. 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.000 I still confuse that it lasted over a decade, and 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:16.240 it makes me think about the attempts over the years 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.960 to get Americans to convert to the metric system, like 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.080 a system that actually makes a lot of sense, but 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:23.040 it's just way too hard to get people to move 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.160 from something they're used to, especially if they don't see 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.720 it as broken. And obviously that change was like politically loaded. 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:31.120 But you were talking about the French, but you said 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:32.120 there was another attempt. 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:34.160 Yeah, that's right. So there were also the Soviets, and 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:36.680 they tried to change things up in nineteen twenty nine. 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.520 This was really more of an effort to increase production 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:41.840 from the workforce. I don't know if you know this, 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.360 but the Soviets were kind of big on this idea 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:45.640 of getting more out of the workfloor. 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:46.319 I heard that. 0:11:46.720 --> 0:11:49.000 And as they saw it, the regular seven day week 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:52.280 left machines and workers idle for two out of every 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.559 seven days. And that's just not efficient as they saw it. 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:58.840 I'll warn you it is pretty crazy what they tried 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.559 to do. I'm ready for all right. So they created 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:04.079 these five day weeks and sets of six to get 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:07.480 these thirty day months, and months that had thirty one days. Well, 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:09.960 they just made that another work day, which is so 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.160 Soviet of them, and that part so far you can follow. 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.839 But the workers would have one out of every five 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:18.480 days off. And here's where it gets a little crazy, 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.160 all right. So instead of having some big anchor day 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.160 like the sabbath or a weekend. They just assigned one 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:27.000 of the five days to each person as their personal 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:30.320 day off. Each day was then assigned a color, and 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.880 then people were assigned a color and a number, and 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:35.200 the corresponding color was your day off. 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.280 That sounds so confusing. I told you it was. 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:38.960 It's crazy. 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.800 So did families or groups of friends, like, did they 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:42.920 all get the same day off? 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:43.160 No? 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:44.840 And that was a big problem. I mean, if you 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:47.280 looked at people's address books, you'd see people having to 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:49.400 keep up with when their loved ones days off were, 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:51.959 and they'd have to write their colors next to each 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:54.920 of their names. It was just so, so so confusing. 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:58.079 Yeah, I'm not that organized, and it's not surprising. Why 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.360 why this wouldn't have lasted. I mean people couldn't have 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:03.760 their worship days together, which I guess matters less to 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:06.360 the Soviets, but also, you know what about just getting 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:07.960 your family together and playing sports. 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:10.680 Yeah, you're right. It was a big problem. So even 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:12.840 though a year after it launched, the state was claiming 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.320 that nearly three fourths of the workers were on this 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:19.000 continual production week, it still didn't sit well with people 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:22.480 because their families and social circles. They were being broken up. 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.280 But did it meet their goal, like, did it increase production? 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:27.600 Well, that was one of the nails in the coffin too. 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:30.640 It actually didn't really increase production, or at least not 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.520 by much. Machines were wearing out and they couldn't be 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.240 fixed because they didn't have off days, and it was 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.320 tough on workers. So Stalin then decided to put the 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:42.080 plan on hold until all the issues could be worked out. 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:44.120 And you know, you think they would just go back 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:46.800 to the seven day week, but nope, not the Soviets. 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:49.600 They couldn't accept the idea of going back to that, 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.760 so they decided on a six day week instead, and 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.160 everyone had the same day off at least, But it 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:58.360 was still nearly impossible to get everyone in rural areas 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:02.200 to follow this new calendar. So by around nineteen forty 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.320 or so, the Soviets were back to the seven day. 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:06.000 Week, which sounds exhausting. 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:08.440 I try explaining it. I actually think I need a 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:14.120 break for a quiz. Well, we decided to do this 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.160 episode on the best day of the week. We were 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.120 both reminded of this terrific book by Melissa hecksher. It 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.600 was called Be Safe, Simple Strategies for Death Free Living, 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:24.800 and we were fortunate enough to get Melissa on the 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.160 line to answer a few questions about our favorite parts 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:29.800 of her book. Melissa, Welcome to Part Time Genius. 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:31.440 Hi, thanks for having me on. 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:32.280 Awesome. 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.560 So, Melissa, before we dive into specifics, I was curious, 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:37.280 how did the book idea come to you? Were you 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:39.760 always just worried about the possible ways you could die? 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:43.720 Actually kind of, I'm sort of one of those people 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:47.080 that worries about everything, so, you know, when it came 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:48.640 to me. I was living in New York City at 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:52.120 the time and doing a lot of driving and traveling 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:55.000 by train and subway, and I just was always wondering 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.640 every time I got on the subway what car I 0:14:57.640 --> 0:14:59.280 should get onto. Should I be in the back of 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.840 the subway or middle of the subway, you know? Or 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:04.920 when I was driving to and from Philadelphia, where my 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.440 parents live, I always wondered whether I should be in 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.520 the middle lane or the right lane, or these small 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:12.840 choices that we make every day stay safe. And I 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.560 was always thinking about it. So I wanted to do 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:17.640 a little more research to find out the answers to 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:18.360 those questions. 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:20.600 And wasn't it Salvador Dali that used to like to 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:23.160 ride in the front car that car so that he 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:25.080 would get there earlier, get there first. 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:26.880 That's funny, that's pretty great. 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.200 Well, the front car actually is the safest because it's 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:30.560 where usually the conductor is. 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.280 All right, Well, you know this episode is on the 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:35.480 best day of the week, or asking the question what 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:37.160 is the best day of the week. And of course 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:39.880 we thought about you because several of your your entries 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:41.720 in this great book have to do, you know, with 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:44.560 the best day of doing certain things, so we thought 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:46.760 we'd ask you about a few of those. So I 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.080 know you mentioned in the book the safest time to 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.360 go to the bank, So tell us when that is. 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:54.440 The safest time to go to the bank. 0:15:54.680 --> 0:16:00.800 Is really between Tuesday and Thursday in the afternoon, because 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:05.240 historically bank robberies seem to happen on Fridays, and people 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:08.120 think that's because that's payday. So I guess the bank 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:10.080 rubbers assume the bank is going to have so much 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.560 more money on Friday. That's just when most bank robberies happen. 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:15.880 So if you want to avoid them, to stay away 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.120 from the bank on Friday morning because they also usually 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:18.920 happen in the morning. 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:23.280 Ah yeah, how about the best day to order sushi? 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.200 I love sushi, so this one was important to meet today, 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.160 especially because I around when I was writing the book 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:31.240 is when I got pregnant, so I was extra careful 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:34.960 with things like sushi. So the best time to get 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:39.680 sushi is on Friday. And that's because most fish markets 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:42.080 are closed on Sundays, So you definitely don't want to 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:45.200 get sushi on a Monday because the chances are that 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.240 it hasn't it's not a fresh delivery, so you're not 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.400 getting the freshest fish that way, which means that you 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:53.360 have a greater chance of possibly getting sick from that fish. 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:55.840 Oh that's interesting. That makes a lot of sense though 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.000 when you say that, Well, here's one that wasn't on 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.200 a specific day, but you addressed and book The safest 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:04.040 month to get elective surgery, And I thought this one 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:04.960 was super interesting. 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:11.280 It is interesting the safest most residents graduate in June, 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:13.600 and so they start at their new positions at a 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:18.600 hospital in July. So the safest month is actually June 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:21.120 because the older residents that have been there all year 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.360 and they know the system, they know their routine, they 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:26.399 know their peers, they've been there all year, whereas in 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:30.000 July they're new and so not to say that they 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.000 can't do their jobs, but they maybe don't know. They're 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.080 not used to working together. There might be a few 0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:38.399 more mistakes or errors that happen in July than happen 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.119 in June. So if you can help it, schedule your 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.680 surgery closer to you, maybe May or June and not 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:45.880