WEBVTT - Listener Mail: The Power of Names 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:14.160 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:16.599 My name is Robert Lamb and Julie Douglas. And this 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.520 is a special listener mail edition, so we better call 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:25.280 the robot over here added fanfare for the robot night. Yeah, 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:28.720 but we've been neglecting him recently. We have been running 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.800 the habit of of just focusing on the episodes, and 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:33.560 we continue to get all this great listener mail in 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.320 and we we read it. We we really appreciate it. 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.080 We respond where we can during our busy days. But 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:42.720 eventually we build up enough. We have to get to it. 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:44.640 We have to let the robot out of his way, 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:47.280 and and then this is what happens. We devote a 0:00:47.280 --> 0:00:52.440 whole episode, especially your your feedback about names. We received 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:57.960 so many about nomini determinism, about how the name that 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:01.520 we were given, how it affects our ultimate outcome in life, 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.120 our opportunities in life, and how we see ourselves, how 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.600 other people see us and treat us. And uh, obviously 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:10.240 everyone out there has a name. Everyone out there has 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.560 has some sort of an opinion on to what extent 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:15.760 their name is affecting who they are so we we 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:17.959 received a lot of cool content. We cannot go through 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:20.720 all of it. Yeah, at some point I feel like 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:25.640 we had something like six a day just on nominative determinism. 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:30.479 So yeah, let him all right? Uh. We heard from 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:33.679 Polly who wrote in and mentioned that her name was 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.480 supposed to be Apollonia, which, of course uh is the 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.959 god of music, poetry, art oracles, archery, plague, medicine, sun light, 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:44.640 and knowledge. But she says her parents chickened out and 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:48.200 named her Pauline instead, but she went back around and 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:53.640 reclaimed Apollonia, and so she writes to us as Polly okay, 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.080 and also the Muse of Prince you forgot Apollonia? The 0:01:57.160 --> 0:02:01.760 Muse of Princes and Prince Prince singer up. I believe 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.720 like there's a character Apollonia. Oh, I could be wrong. 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:06.560 I remember there was a character in the movie over 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:09.560 Drawn at the Memory Bank named Papolonia. But that's that's 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.960 my main uh in for that name, all right. We 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:19.400 also heard from our listener Jasper. Jasper was actually given 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.000 the birth name Luke. He says he grew up in 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.680 a very strict with a very strict Christian dad, and 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:26.520 he was getting into the trouble trouble all the time. 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.079 So he associated that name of getting caught and Luke 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:31.480 of course means light and an enlightened one and has 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.519 the same route as the as the name Lucifer. And 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.359 so he ended up eventually rebelling against his former identity 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:42.600 and choosing Jasper as his new identity, which which I 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.880 think this is. You know, this is an important aspect 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:46.919 in a lot of people's history with their names. You're 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:49.320 either you're given one version of your name and you 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.440 ended up sort of shifting it into into your own 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.680 personal identity, or many people just straight up abandon it. 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:59.480 Sometimes they're abandoning the simple name for the stranger name, 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:02.400 or it seems like just as often it's the it's 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.040 the the opposite of that, they end up taking the 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.640 strange name and exchanging it for the normal one. It's 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:11.440 kind of like the star Bellied speeches and the star machine, right. Yeah, 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:13.600 I think I took the E off of my name 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:19.320 at one point, as as a tiny youth a youth, yeah, 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:22.000 And then another point I think I wanted to put 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:24.720 some boom lots over the you. But what's the point 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.520 of that? Yeah, pretty Julie that's true. Yeah, yeah, I 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.720 just shifted around from various boring versions of my boring name. 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:35.560 I mean, it's basically just varying levels of masculine and feminine. 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.080 You have Robert, you have Rob, you have Robbie, you 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.520 have Bob, Bob, and it seems like Robin was name. 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:43.200 You know, people would refer to me as all of those, 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:44.920 depending on where they were in my family. Didn't you 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.280 post something once that it was like the lifespan of 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.920 the name Robert, Like as a young kid, the boys 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:54.160 called Robbie. Yeah, you know, I can't take credit for 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.040 creating it, but someone on the internet created this kind 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:00.000 of timeline. Yeah, where it's it's like the cycle of life. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.240 In the in the morning, in the dawn of your years, 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:08.640 I guess you're a Robbie, you Robert, and then in 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:12.280 the sunset years your Bob. Yeah. All right, Now here's 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.240 an interesting, uh a bit of feedback on the same topic, 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.640 and this comes to us from page page right soon 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:19.520 and says, I'm surprised you didn't discuss or at least 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:22.359 mentioned changing one's name and adulthead, or or for that matter, 0:04:22.480 --> 0:04:24.719 in infancy. A friend of mine had to rename her 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.280 child because no one could pronounce the original name. I 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:29.520 was born with a name which stereotypically did not match 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.520 my gender. There were several boys all through primary school 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.200 with the same name, and perhaps that influence my departure 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.440 from the feminine. Apparently, at as young as five or six, 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:41.800 I was introducing myself by different names, and at fifteen 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:45.920 started going by a nickname completely disconnected from my birth name. 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:48.680 Nicknames changed, and eventually, when I was eighteen, I worked 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.560 out what would be a good new name for myself, 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:53.680 then went down to the Office of Births, Deaths, and 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:57.120 Marriages and changed it. I've been Paige ever since, and 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.840 just hearing my birth name makes me I'm comfortable. Did 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:03.440 I've perhaps change my destiny by changing my name? How 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:06.240 does hating one's name and refusing to use it whenever 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:10.400 possible affect things? How are babies or children affected when 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:12.880 their name is changed? And how do children who cannot 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.880 pronounce their names fair? My daughter has a speech impediment 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.760 and cannot pronounce her shortened name uh Meiwi versus neely 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.279 let alone her first long name. Thanks for the podcast. 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.160 I've been listening for over a year now. Uh And 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.320 when I found you. I devoured them all as quickly 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.719 as I could. Page I read this entire email because 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:33.159 here on the episode, because I think she did raise 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:35.320 a lot of cool points. It's gonna be, you know, 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.480 chewing over the uh, the issues involved in naming and 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:41.320 reclaiming a name or abandoning a name. I kind of 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.920 feel like altering your name is a sort of rite 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.240 of passage anyway, and it does seem to happen in 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.520 those teenage years when you're trying to figure out what 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:53.200 your personality is, who you want to be in the world. Yeah, indeed, 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.040 and uh And as far as the speech issue goes, um, 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.120 my son has some catching up on his speech because 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.440 he had a cliff flip cleft ballot and his name 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.120 is is Sebastian, but he we just call him Bastion 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:07.040 and the home because you know, you can, you can 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.159 say that easier. And I also think I, like a 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.400 little toddler, seemed to really go for more of the 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:15.120 one or two syllables anyway, Like that third syllable that's 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:16.840 just something to trip over, so you might as well 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:19.600 cut it down. Um. But we also made sure that 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.320 we named the new cat a name that he could 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:23.960 stay easily because they're like, we want him to be 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:25.560 able to say the cat's name. We're not gonna give 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:28.480 it some crazy name like Zartagnan or something. So we 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.960 called the new cat Mochi, and that he can say. Yeah. 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:36.400 One of my daughter's earliest little snugly toys was named 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.200 as Morelda, and people would get so annoyed with us. 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.159 They like, what she can't pronounce as Morelda? What would 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:45.760 she she call it? Um? She never really cottoned to it, 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.679 so we never had to worry about it. But shoot high, 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:51.640 That's what I'm saying, because they seem to come up 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:54.080 with like if they if they can't or don't want 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:57.200 to say all the syllables and something. They they're really 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.920 weird about how they choose, pick and choose. For instance, 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:05.839 my son, for whatever reason, is still calling water ewa, 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:08.920 Like why, Like, clearly you can say waw and you 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:11.160 I mean you could, you could, You could hit it 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.760 more on the head, I think, But instead he's calling 0:07:13.760 --> 0:07:15.200 it ewa to the point where I have to stop 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.840 myself from thinking of it as ewa because it does 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:20.840 it does sound give him that it sounds good. You 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:23.120 did ask me to give you give you your class 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.720 of EA the other day and I was like, what, yeah, 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:28.960 all right, here's another but listener mail. This comes to 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.080 us from Nathan in Australia. Nathan says, my grandfather's name 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.920 was Victor. He was a champion rugby league player, lawn 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:39.400 bowler and golfer. So there's another example of of a 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:43.400 name that may or may not have have pushed uh 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:48.640 the individual onto Victory. Uh. And on a similar note, 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:51.240 here's one from Victoria, also in Australia. We have a 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.880 lot of listeners in Australia. She writes it and says, 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:55.600 I thought you might be interesting in a story about 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:57.280 my name. As you can see from my email, it's 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.559 Victoria's strike But here's more to it because, as you see, 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.400 I'm adopted. Five years ago. I found my biological family 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:08.239 and their surname is Force, so technically i'm Victoria's Strike Force. 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.280 My boyfriend, on the other hand, has been terribly unlucky. 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:17.080 His name is Ben Ben Laden been Lodden, perhaps eat 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:21.080 way close enough to conceivably caused some problems. I want 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:22.840 to think through the podcast it rocks and makes my 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.960 daily train ride to work a joy. Victoria, we had 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.880 Gillian right into us uh and give us some some 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:32.520 very cool feedback on the episode and on some other 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.960 topics as well. But pointed out that they worked in 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.920 a hospital where there was a doctor doctor the last 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:43.280 name d O C K T O R so and 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.880 people refer to the doctor as doctor, doctor, doctor doctor. Yes, 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:49.800 and here's an interesting question. Finally, this has brought up 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.440 to us by our listeners. Zerik Zerrec of course has 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:56.200 a very cool first name of him, may say so, 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:58.760 a very creative first name. So he mentioned that he 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:00.680 even though his parents were very on of the name 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:03.280 and uh and and and stead, that they made it 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:07.800 up for him especially, he felt he felt limited, but 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.000 he felt like it wasn't his name. It felt alien 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.560 to him anyway. He asked, do you think you quote 0:09:12.600 --> 0:09:16.720 normals unquote could explain to a person with a weird, foreign, 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.600 meaningless name, what it feels like to have a common name. 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.040 Does it just feel like nothing? Because that's more or 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.120 less how I feel about my name most of the time. 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:27.760 And that's an interesting question because, like I say, I've 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:31.000 always felt like my name is boring, and I've always 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:34.760 felt like my normal name is just it's almost like 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:36.760 a number I'm given like, I don't feel a particular 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:39.400 attachment or identity to it. I am just sort of 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:41.600 I am who I am in spite of having the 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:43.840 name Robert Lamb. Well, I mean, the thing is is 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.720 that when you have a normal name and you're introducing yourself, 0:09:47.760 --> 0:09:51.160 people often misremember it as another normal name, like Surely 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:55.080 or Judy, Julie, you know, and so Zak. I would 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:57.080 say that people probably pay a little bit more attention 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:00.480 to your name, maybe even more attention to you as 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.640 a person, because they don't automatically have these sort of 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:07.640 common associations with your name. I think it's kind of awesome, 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.000 although I understand like if you don't, maybe there's a 0:10:11.000 --> 0:10:15.120 sense of otherness with that name that you might feel 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:20.760 more than the average Joe. Yeah, it's it does seem 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:22.920 like a situation where you can't really win. You give 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:24.840 a kid a weird name, they're gonna want a normal one. 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:26.400 You give them get a normal name, they're gonna a 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.200 weird one. Maybe that solution is you have to give 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:31.120 them both and then they can sort of pick and 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:33.360 choose which one they want to go with. Well, isn't 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:37.360 there already that that idea that this generation um will 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.319 need to change their name by age eighteen anyway because 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:44.000 of security issues and oversharing on the internet. It is 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.800 just true. So and I wonder to what extent the 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:51.800 the normal abnormal name shift will feature into that. Do 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.119 you tend to have a crazier name during this rebellious 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:56.840 wild stage? Or is that when you have a normal 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.320 name and you're rebelling against it. And if we're going 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.160 to live to be five undred years old, as Albredy 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.840 de Gray that bio gerontologists says, maybe just keep changing 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.960 your name like every century. Right, Yeah, just keep reinventing 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.480 yourself because you're going to forget most of it, everything 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:13.800 that's happened to you anyway, right, yeah, alright. We got 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:16.680 a couple of emails about pro pri exception, this idea 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:18.920 of figuring out where your body is and space and time, 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:21.920 and uh, here is one from Brenna. She says, I 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:24.560 enjoyed your recent podcast. I am a therapist who works 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:27.800 with infants and toddlers with special needs ages zero at five. 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.760 Many of my kids have challenges with appropriate exception, and 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:36.160 children delays ippropriate exception often present its difficulty interacting with 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:40.319 objects in themselves. For example, the children's song Wheels on 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:42.760 the Bus encourages children to rotate their arms in a 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.679 circular pattern around each other. Robert narrating this right now, 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.400 It is a good song. Children need motor planning appropriate 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.520 exception to carry out this action. However, because they don't 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.720 yet understand where their body is in space and time 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.760 in relation to itself, they often have greater difficulty with 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:04.280 this complex action. And she goes on to say that, um, 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.120 if they have delays appropriate reception, it's not uncommon that 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:11.880 their vestibular sense is affected as well, and when that's affected, 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.040 it can be really difficult to manage properceptive needs. So 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.840 you're talking about balance and coordination, and she says that 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.480 in adults you can kind of adapt, but in kids, 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.360 it's really hard on paraphrasing, by the way, she says, 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.960 because they never learn the skill to begin with. And 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:29.720 so she says, if there are any listeners with kids 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:34.200 who have difficulty with propriate reception or vestibular development, she 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.240 wanted to share a couple of at home activities that 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.040 parents can do with her kids. Um. She says that 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:43.520 activities that involve heavy pushing and pulling, which in turn 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:47.320 provide greater sensory feedback. You can fill a wagon with 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.480 toys to pull, pushing a toy grocery cart or rolling 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:53.080 weighted balls. She said. That's a great start, but no 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.280 more than temperation or their body weight for the pushing 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:57.480 and pulling. You can buy a pop up tennel or 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:00.720 a tent to give them practice traveling through different spaces. Again, 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:03.560 we take all of this for granted, right, um, she said, 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:06.400 A good old fashioned pillow forward is great too, and 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.040 songs like head, shoulders, knees and toes if you know 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:13.200 that one, if you're happy and you know it, ladybug. 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:16.560 These are all good for coordination with body parts. And finally, 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:18.600 she says that you could kind of create a swing 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.520 with a blanket or a towel. Says she used as 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.040 a toy parachute, and she twists the ends together with 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.080 the child inside. She gently lifts the child a couple 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:28.880 inches off the floor and let some swing from side 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:30.880 to side, and that the kids love this and they 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:34.400 pop their head out to see what's going on. Um. Again, 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.320 things that we take for granted, this idea that you're 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:41.000 moving through space and time, and always I've always wondered 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.520 about this because I've noticed that as my daughter develops. 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.480 She's five years old now, um, but she seems to 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:49.800 be going through a growth spurt. She seems to be 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:52.320 falling a lot more. And I wonder if it's because 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.880 the borders of your body are rapidly changing and you 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.760 don't You're not as um as familiar with how your 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:01.400 body he is moving through space and time. It's like 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:05.600 having iTunes or Adobe on your machine. It constantly needs 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.760 the updates. And yes, there you can't keep up with 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.280 a number of updates that are required to properly orient 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:14.600 yourself in time and space. Perhaps, Yeah, And I also 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.000 remember too that when I was pregnant, particularly in the 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.680 third trimester, I really did not know where I was. 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:21.920 I mean like I would go through I would bump 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:23.840 into things all the time because I didn't really have 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:25.440 a sense of the borders of my body. And I 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.880 wonder if any other women experienced that. So proprioception continues 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:33.080 to be this really fascinating topic. Yeah, I had we 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.200 receiving another email on the topic from Michael. Michael wrote 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:41.040 in with an email titled propri exception Glitches. He says, 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:43.840 several years ago, I had a table saw accident. The 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.720 resulted in my left index finger spending a couple of 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:49.520 months wrapped in bandages. When the bandages came out, my 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.120 doctor told me to touch as many different textures as 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.920 possible and to look at my finger as I did it, 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.080 so that my brain would know how to interpret the 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.400 signals it was receiving. The damage to my finger, followed 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:04.920 by a long swaddling, essentially rebooted my brain's relationship with 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:07.560 my finger, and I had to retrain it. During this 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.880 reboot process, I developed a habit of rubbing my index 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.560 finger and thumb together. Several years later, I injured my 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.520 thumb and was surprised to find that my index finger 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:20.840 was also feeling the pain of the injury. Apparently a 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.560 few wires end up getting crossed thanks to my little 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:28.520 nervous tick. Huh okay um. Here's another one about appropriate exception. 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.960 This is from J in Tilsonburg, Ontario, Canada, and he 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:34.280 says that when I was younger, I raised a bit 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.240 of motocross and rode for fun since I was eight 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.560 years old. On a few rare occasions, when racing as 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:42.840 hard as I could, I would get into an almost 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:46.400 meditative mind state where I would swear the bike felt 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:48.600 like a part of me. I could almost feel the 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.600 ground under my front tire as if an extension of 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.080 my arms, uh, and the field attraction left in the 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:58.200 soil through the soles of my feet while either in 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.200 the air on the throttle where I end it and 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:03.880 the bike began felt blurred. This was also when I 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.440 felt the fastest and most confident on the bike. Now, 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:09.840 I was no superstar racers, so I wonder whether the 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.560 pros or other bikers have had the sensation. Thanks again, Jay, 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:17.640 our boss are sort of not boss anymore. Um connell 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:21.680 actually uses a motorcycle, and he had said, he had 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:24.359 mentioned before uses that as his main form of transportation, 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.720 that when he's in traffic and he's on the highway, 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:31.240 that he gets into this meditative state with the bike 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:36.320 because it's uh such a trepidacious ride that he really 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.800 has to focus all of his energy into what he's 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:42.760 doing on that bike. And I thought, well, that's kind 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:44.480 of interesting. That sort of lines up with what Jay 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:49.560 is saying. All right. We also recently did a rerun 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:51.640 of our episode on the Science of Beards, which is 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:53.760 a popular episode, and to no one's surprise, it was 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.400 popular again the second time. Uh So we received this 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.360 one from Renee. Renee writes, and I'm sending this on 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.680 account of the Signs of Beards episode, which I listened 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:06.040 to today while running. The topic of facial hair has 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.560 always interested me. Why certain people prefer certain styles, different reasons, 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:11.919 why people have it, etcetera. I enjoyed your episode and 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:13.679 thought you would like to hear some things. I know, 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:16.320 when you talked about Abraham Lincoln liking to wrestle and 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.439 having a beard, I was surprised you did not mention 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:21.280 the story of why he grew his beard. You might 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:23.400 already know it, but here is some of the letter 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:27.240 written to Lincoln while he was running for office. I'm 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:31.120 going to summon my Laura Ingles Wilder here. Okay, dear sir, 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:33.560 my father has just come home from the fair and 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:36.760 brought home your picture and Mr Hamlin's. I am a 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:39.359 little girl, only eleven years old, but want you to 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:41.720 be President of the United States very much, so I 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.399 hope you won't think me very bold to write to 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.080 such a great man as you are. I have got 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:49.879 four brothers and part of them will vote for you anyway, 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:52.639 And if you let your whiskers grow. I will try 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.400 and get the rest of them to vote for you. 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.160 You would look a great deal better, for your face 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:02.000 is so thin. All the eies like whiskers, and they 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:04.680 would tease their husbands to vote for you, and then 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:07.000 you would be president. My father is going to vote 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.160 for you, and if I was a man, I would 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:11.880 vote for you too. But I will try to get 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.440 everyone to vote for you that I can. Well, there 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:16.439 you go from the from the mouths of babes right 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.160 talking about whiskers, how adorable, making his face looked thicker 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:23.160 and more more capable of taking a punch. I think 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.679 she was like the first focus group. Yeah, accidentally, I 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:28.960 think she was. All right, here's another one about beards. 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.359 Is it from Martin Howdy from Texas? Y'all, I just 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.159 heard your podcast on beers. As a bearded fellow, I 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.520 thought i'd cheer some of my experience with the general public. 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:38.600 I have it quite the mixed reaction to my beard. 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:40.359 But the one thing that really struck me was that 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.560 the larger portion of the younger generation has a positive 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:45.800 reaction to my beard and is usually impressed, but the 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:49.360 older thirties and up seemed to have a more negative reaction. 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.159 One seventy is fellow even went so far as to 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.520 tell me that society would fix me and that if 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.480 I didn't shave that bleep off, I'd wind up in 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:01.840 a loony it. Uh. The older people get, the more 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.640 negative their statements. Besides that, my girlfriend likes my beard 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:07.240 and most of my friends are in agreement that I 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.359 look better with it than without it. That might be 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:12.919 because I have a hatchet face. Oh we doubt that. 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:15.720 The podcast was the first podcast and made me go 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.200 to y'all's website, and speaking of faces, I was surprised 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:20.640 at how y'all looked. Y'all should do a podcast about 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:23.359 voices and faces and how we associate them. I thoroughly 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:27.400 enjoy the show. Keep up the good work, Martin. All right, 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.120 thanks Martin. Yeah. We uh we hear from listeners from 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:32.240 time to time they're like, oh my god, I saw 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.800 photos of you guys and not at all what I imagined, 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.479 and I'm deeply upset because I imagine something else for you. Well, 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:41.800 you know, he mentioned you know, uh, Martin here is 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.960 from Texas, and I instantly thought, uh, two MPR there 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.479 is there's one MPR reporter from Texas. This often featured 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:53.679 you've probably heard him as a real, real Texan voice, 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:56.439 but a soothing voice almost like there's a little bit 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:58.919 of Wilford Brimley in there, and a little bit of 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.159 h and Marie Stouffer from the old you know, a 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:05.919 wildlife show. Very soothing and and so I form in 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:08.720 my mind this kind of picture of this bearded Wilfred 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.280 Brimley s guy, maybe a little a little bit of 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:13.920 that character from Parks and rec with a big mustache, 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:17.520 you know, uh, some of that going on. And then 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:19.920 I look him up online and he's just a guy, 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:22.360 like does not look like my mental helt. I thought 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:24.840 you're gonna say, like he had a faux hawk. No, no, 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.479 he had, he doesn't. You know, he's not on the 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:29.119