1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:03,280 Speaker 1: Jersey and Amanda jam Nation. 2 00:00:03,640 --> 00:00:08,000 Speaker 2: How very exciting this man is Australia's most beloved scientist. 3 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:12,520 Speaker 2: But how did doctor Carl become this eccentric genius that 4 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:15,280 Speaker 2: we know today? After wandering down more than a dozen 5 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 2: career paths, studying five degrees, living the life of a 6 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:21,119 Speaker 2: crazed hippie, Doctor Carl is sharing all of this in 7 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:24,040 Speaker 2: his new memoir called A Periodic Tale Doctor Carl. 8 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:27,360 Speaker 1: Hello, doctor Amanda, how lovely to be with you again. 9 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:29,520 Speaker 2: You know what's interesting is that when I was a 10 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:32,839 Speaker 2: segment producer on the Midday Show, probably forty years ago, 11 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:35,760 Speaker 2: would have been made more than that I was. You 12 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:38,479 Speaker 2: and I were both junior Burgers. You were studying a 13 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:42,559 Speaker 2: medical degree and I was a producer, and I was 14 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:45,440 Speaker 2: producing your stories for the Midday Show, and you were 15 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:48,120 Speaker 2: talking about climate change. Then it's the first time anyone 16 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:48,919 Speaker 2: had ever heard of it. 17 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:51,760 Speaker 1: Wow. And I remember that how you started off with 18 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: a guest not turning up and so they shoved you 19 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:56,960 Speaker 1: on air and blow me down. You performed like a 20 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,360 Speaker 1: professional and it was a lucky break. Isn't a wonderful 21 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:04,040 Speaker 1: how sometimes you need that mixture of luck and talent 22 00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:06,440 Speaker 1: and hard work. And in your case of paid off. 23 00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 3: For you is that when the ferret guy didn't shop up, 24 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:10,600 Speaker 3: so our man had to shove a ferret down a pan. 25 00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:14,040 Speaker 2: Now I just chose to the pope. Wasn't there a 26 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:15,560 Speaker 2: ferret down the airport? 27 00:01:15,640 --> 00:01:17,680 Speaker 1: I think? And they weren't there or something like that. 28 00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:21,480 Speaker 2: Oh, something like that. I'd probably still have triggered dreams 29 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:22,560 Speaker 2: about being a producer. 30 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:25,520 Speaker 3: There's a chapter in your memoir about drug crazed hippy 31 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,400 Speaker 3: years and you're a long haired, dope smoking taxi drive. 32 00:01:29,520 --> 00:01:32,440 Speaker 1: Yeah. I was very lucky in retrospect, and that firstly, 33 00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:35,399 Speaker 1: I didn't end up being busted by the cops doing 34 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:37,840 Speaker 1: illegal things, which I was, and I do not. I 35 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:40,319 Speaker 1: highly recommend do not do illegal things because you might 36 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:43,000 Speaker 1: end up sharing yourself with a very large man with 37 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:45,480 Speaker 1: love and hate tattooed on their knuckles, which is a 38 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:47,840 Speaker 1: bad thing to have happened. And the other thing, I 39 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:50,920 Speaker 1: was lucky when I did the dope smoking thing, doing 40 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:55,120 Speaker 1: it after my brain had matured around in my early twenties. 41 00:01:55,680 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: And I was also lucky that I didn't have the 42 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:59,880 Speaker 1: gene that sets you off for schizophrenia, which some people have, 43 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:02,800 Speaker 1: so I was kind of lucky on that as well. 44 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:03,720 Speaker 1: So would you be. 45 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:06,200 Speaker 3: An advocate for weed because it's for a long time. 46 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,639 Speaker 3: I watched that thing on YouTube about the demon weed, 47 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:13,480 Speaker 3: and there's a theory that alcohol demonized marijuana. 48 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:18,760 Speaker 1: It goes from farcological point of view. In terms of 49 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:21,760 Speaker 1: how it behaves affects people in society, there's not a 50 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:23,800 Speaker 1: lot of difference. Except the big difference is if you 51 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: talk to the cops in New York whereas now legal 52 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:30,600 Speaker 1: that there's much less violence. So the people who are 53 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:33,280 Speaker 1: still a bit off their faces, they're not making rational decisions, 54 00:02:33,639 --> 00:02:35,880 Speaker 1: and so you've got to be factoring that in. But 55 00:02:35,919 --> 00:02:38,720 Speaker 1: there's much less violence. And so we've have two states 56 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:42,839 Speaker 1: in Australia where it's not demonized with South Australian Canberra yep. 57 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:45,079 Speaker 1: So whatever the law is, don't bust the law. There 58 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:45,359 Speaker 1: you go. 59 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:49,000 Speaker 2: Your parents were Holocaust survivors. I've read before that some 60 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 2: children of Holocaust survivors are hypochondriacs because a lot of 61 00:02:53,560 --> 00:02:55,480 Speaker 2: parents say, I don't worry, this won't kill you, whereas 62 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:58,320 Speaker 2: Holocaust survivors know that things, terrible things can happen. 63 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: Did this shape your childhood enormously? So it was the 64 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:04,880 Speaker 1: weirdest thing. So in the case of my father, everything 65 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: he told me was true, and I didn't believe it 66 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: because he was a bit of a journalist. And in 67 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,880 Speaker 1: case my mother, she lied about everything, her name, her age, 68 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:15,160 Speaker 1: where she was born, her religion, or to cover up 69 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:16,680 Speaker 1: the terrible things that had happened to her. It was 70 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:19,320 Speaker 1: like she was a new person that had been reinvented. 71 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:21,520 Speaker 1: And the weird thing about migrants is that the first 72 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:25,160 Speaker 1: thing when migrants come to a country, their crime rate 73 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:29,520 Speaker 1: is really low. Secondly, their children get educated because the 74 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 1: parents have got nothing. They're working all these really crappy jobs, 75 00:03:32,240 --> 00:03:33,880 Speaker 1: and they say get educated because that way you can 76 00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:36,400 Speaker 1: be an engineer and earn a good income. So the 77 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: children also have a lower crime rate. But the children 78 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:41,800 Speaker 1: of the children, the third generation, they have the same 79 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:43,960 Speaker 1: crime rate as the people in the country. So if 80 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:45,880 Speaker 1: you want to drop the crime rate in any country, 81 00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:47,920 Speaker 1: just get rid of all the locals and bring into migrants. 82 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:52,560 Speaker 3: But that's what happens, though, doesn't it, Because you get, 83 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,280 Speaker 3: like say, people from Middle Eastern countries that came out 84 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 3: here in the seventies during the Great Civil War and 85 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:00,240 Speaker 3: stuff like that, and they were just happy to get 86 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 3: out of there. But now their kids, you know, who 87 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,360 Speaker 3: are about my age, they've formed those gangs and things 88 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:07,240 Speaker 3: like that. Is that because they had it too good here? 89 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:10,120 Speaker 1: Well, they've just become local. So I've seen in one 90 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:14,240 Speaker 1: of the suburbs of Sydney the words Muslims out and 91 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:17,720 Speaker 1: wait for it. It was written in Vietnamese, right, So 92 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:19,760 Speaker 1: it was the third generations of the Vietnamese who are 93 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:22,839 Speaker 1: now as racist as the local it is. 94 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:25,000 Speaker 2: I don't know what to read into any Do you think. 95 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:25,760 Speaker 3: That we're getting dumber? 96 00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:26,120 Speaker 1: Are we? 97 00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 3: Like? Because all of a sudden there's flat earthers that 98 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:30,799 Speaker 3: have a platform. Now they're talking about flat ef people 99 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:33,839 Speaker 3: are now reasonable. People are now saying maybe the moonlight 100 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:34,880 Speaker 3: landing was faked. 101 00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:41,719 Speaker 1: Interesting the look up ABC, Doctor Carl and Smarter or 102 00:04:41,720 --> 00:04:44,920 Speaker 1: Flinn effect fly double n SO back in the ninete 103 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:48,240 Speaker 1: ninety so Flynn worked out that the IQ is going 104 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:51,000 Speaker 1: up by nine IQ points every generation. And he looked 105 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:54,920 Speaker 1: at the military records of the IQ taken in America 106 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:57,360 Speaker 1: from nine to thirty two to the present, and the 107 00:04:57,360 --> 00:04:59,760 Speaker 1: IQ is going up in the military by nine IQ 108 00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:03,800 Speaker 1: point every generation, and in American civilian civilians, and in 109 00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:06,799 Speaker 1: every country around the world. We are boy the dimension measure. 110 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: So on one hand, the kids are getting smarter and 111 00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:12,120 Speaker 1: we don't know why. On the other hand, the knowledge 112 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:15,280 Speaker 1: is different again. And so for example, on TikTok okay 113 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:18,800 Speaker 1: question without notice, document dot doctor jonesy. On TikTok what 114 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:22,360 Speaker 1: percentage of medical information is accurate? Doctor Jonesy pick a number. 115 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: I'd say twenty percent, Doctor Amanda seven two two. That's 116 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:31,000 Speaker 1: why I go on TikTok to try and set it 117 00:05:31,080 --> 00:05:32,840 Speaker 1: straight again. That's why I went there the first time, 118 00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:35,320 Speaker 1: because they're all these lives. So on one hand, there's 119 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:40,240 Speaker 1: massive disinformation powered by the desire to do advertising. So 120 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:43,160 Speaker 1: each time you click on a home page, now I 121 00:05:43,240 --> 00:05:49,040 Speaker 1: must see something like Amanda Jones has suddenly been reincorporated, 122 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,960 Speaker 1: revealed to be an alien? Anything true? I believe that 123 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:55,040 Speaker 1: you did. You see click on it, but by the 124 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:58,240 Speaker 1: act of clicking in their first one hundreds of a 125 00:05:58,279 --> 00:06:02,360 Speaker 1: second before things start to appear on your screen, your information. 126 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 1: And have you ever seen your Google doc information? No, 127 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:07,120 Speaker 1: it's about fourteen gigs. So you had a cup of 128 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:09,240 Speaker 1: coffee here, then you stopped over there for and then 129 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:12,480 Speaker 1: you bought some shoes for somebody so everything you've done 130 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:16,560 Speaker 1: is map there. All that information is then offered to 131 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: five hundred advertisers around the world, who then bid between 132 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:21,320 Speaker 1: one and five cents for the right to show you 133 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:23,320 Speaker 1: the twenty ads on the next home page. 134 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 2: You go, why can't the information be correct? If we're 135 00:06:25,520 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 2: going to be on those platforms? And yeah, sure, I 136 00:06:27,960 --> 00:06:30,559 Speaker 2: know I'm being data mind why can't the information be correct? 137 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:33,080 Speaker 1: Very deep question, you know, doctor Jones. This is what 138 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 1: I love about Amanda. She is frightening me. Intelligent. You 139 00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:38,440 Speaker 1: are in fact smarter than me because you don't know 140 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:40,520 Speaker 1: to ask the better questions. On the other hand, I'm 141 00:06:40,520 --> 00:06:43,839 Speaker 1: better educated because I've been to university for longer, because educated. 142 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:46,480 Speaker 1: Once upon a time, the Australian government thought that education 143 00:06:47,200 --> 00:06:49,680 Speaker 1: was worthwhile investment in the future. Now they don't. 144 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:50,720 Speaker 2: I've got a free one too. 145 00:06:50,839 --> 00:06:53,680 Speaker 1: Yeah. So getting back to your question, so we are 146 00:06:53,839 --> 00:06:57,640 Speaker 1: wired up for anything unusual. So two hundred thousand years 147 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:00,919 Speaker 1: ago walking around Africa and there's a rustling in undergrowth 148 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:03,240 Speaker 1: and it's a bit of carci flash and you think, 149 00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:06,560 Speaker 1: is that a lion? So if you we are wired 150 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 1: up to pay attention to anything that's unusual. So if 151 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:12,400 Speaker 1: we see something saying Amanda Jones is going to be 152 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:15,680 Speaker 1: on radio tomorrow, or Amanda Jones is an alien, you'll 153 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:18,360 Speaker 1: click on that because we are wired up to look 154 00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:20,320 Speaker 1: for things that are different because it might be threatening. 155 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:22,920 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and it might kill you. So it's a 156 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 1: survival characteristic built into us from evolution. 157 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:27,320 Speaker 3: Well, Carl, we want you to stick around because we've 158 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:30,239 Speaker 3: got some questions. We've put a there's questions from people, 159 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:35,000 Speaker 3: reasonable questions around for us, and I'll hang around for everything.