Learn about why men who sleep more are seen as less masculine and what exactly makes radiation harmful. Then, test your podcast knowledge with this month’s Curiosity Challenge trivia game.
Learn about why men who sleep more are seen as less masculine and what exactly makes radiation harmful. Then, test your podcast knowledge with this month’s Curiosity Challenge trivia game.
Men who sleep less are seen as more masculine by Kelsey Donk
What makes radiation harmful? by Cameron Duke
Episodes referenced in Curiosity Challenge Trivia with Diogo:
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/are-sleep-deprived-men-more-masculine
CODY GROUGH: Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: I'm Ashley Hamer.
NATALIA REAGAN: And I'm Natalia Reagan. Today, you'll learn about why men who sleep more are seen as less masculine and what exactly makes radiation harmful.
ASHLEY HAMER: And then you can test your podcast knowledge with this month's Curiosity challenge trivia game.
CODY GROUGH: And then a tearful goodbye to the illustrious Natalia Reagan, who has been so awesome over the last few months.
ASHLEY HAMER: She really has.
CODY GROUGH: More on that in a second. Let's satisfy some curiosity. So our first story is about men and the amount of sleep they get, which is a pretty natural tie-in for me right now.
Look, society has a lot of stereotypes about masculinity. Real men are tough and courageous and in control. Unfortunately, that means many men don't take good care of their health. Men are less likely to go to the doctor or get help from a therapist, or even wear masks during the pandemic.
And now, new research is showing that these stereotypes have affected one more aspect of men's health, their sleep. Researchers have found that people tend to see men who sleep less as more masculine. So color me manly, I guess. Because I've got a newborn.
So here's the deal. In one study, researchers asked participants to imagine that a man was shopping for a bed. A salesperson approaches and asks how much does the man sleep. Try it for yourself.
Let's say the man sleeps a lot. How masculine is he? Does that change if he tells the salesperson that he doesn't sleep very much at all? When participants in this study heard that the imaginary man got a lot of sleep, they rated him as significantly less masculine than a man who only slept a little.
In another study, participants were asked to imagine a masculine man and describe his behaviors and habits, what did the men do for fun, how much did he sleep. While another group did the same with a nonmasculine man. No surprise here. Participants described the masculine man as sleeping 33 minutes less on average than the nonmasculine man.
Across the studies, men who slept a lot were seen more negatively than those who slept a little. The researchers didn't see that same difference in the perception of women. It went the opposite direction too. When men were asked to imagine themselves telling people they sleep a lot, they felt less masculine.
So why is this? Well, according to researchers, it comes down to agency. Basically control, traits like assertiveness and individualism and goal orientation are all related to agency. And they're also seen as more masculine.
People who are seen as goal oriented and in control are probably more likely to push themselves to stay awake and tackle that big project, instead of getting some shut-eye. That's a problem. It means some men might be sleeping less, because they're worried about how masculine they appear. And that's bad for both mental and physical health.
The more we can challenge these stereotypes, the better. Everyone needs a full night's sleep.
ASHLEY HAMER: Radiation can be a scary word. It can cause cancer, mutations, and crime-fighting turtles. But a lot of fear around radiation is unfounded. And that can lead to conspiracy theories about Wi-Fi causing cancer and 5G causing COVID. Is that true, Cody?
CODY GROUGH: Nope. Neither.
ASHLEY HAMER: Thank you. So what is it exactly that makes radiation harmful? I want to start by saying that most radiation is harmless. In fact, you're being bathed in electromagnetic radiation right now in the form of radio waves and light.
Yes, light is a type of radiation. It just doesn't have enough energy to hurt you. Harmful radiation is called ionizing radiation. It's harmful because it has enough energy to strip electrons out of molecules, a.k.a. ionize them.
When your body is exposed to ionizing radiation, it can damage the DNA and other molecules in your cells. If too much DNA is damaged, the cell might die or become cancerous. Yikes.
There are three basic types of ionizing radiation. The first type is called ionizing electromagnetic radiation. And it gets its name because, well, it's on the electromagnetic spectrum.
That's a range of light frequencies with visible light in the middle, low energy infrared on the far end, and high energy ultraviolet or UV on the other end. That high energy is why UV is ionizing and why spending too long in the sun will literally give you radiation burns.
X-rays and gamma rays are other types of ionizing electromagnetic radiation with even more energy. The stuff on the other end of the spectrum, like the radio waves that carry Wi-Fi and cell signals, their low frequency waves don't have enough energy to hurt you.
The other two types of ionizing radiation are alpha and beta radiation. And these are what's at work when something's called radioactive. This kind of radiation happens when atoms emit particles as they decay. Alpha radiation is when an unstable atom ejects protons and neutrons. These particles ionize other atoms by colliding with them.
Beta radiation is what you get when a neutron decays into a proton and makes the atom jettison an electron. Nuclear power plants are powered by refined uranium that decays first by alpha radiation and then beta radiation. Nuclear power plants are powered by refined uranium that decays first by alpha radiation and then beta radiation.
Believe it or not, you have a teeny tiny amount of radioactive Carbon-14 undergoing beta decay in your body right now, and you don't even notice it. And if you do, you should probably get that checked out. My point is that radiation shouldn't be a bad word. It's just misunderstood.
Most of it is harmless, and absolutely none of it will give you superpowers. Or at least, that's what they want you to think, right, Cody?
CODY GROUGH: Yeah, I was going to say I think Bruce Banner and Peter Parker would disagree.
ASHLEY HAMER: It's time once again for the Curiosity challenge. Every month, I call up a listener and put them to the test by asking three questions from stories we ran on Curiosity Daily in the previous month. For this Curiosity challenge, I talked to Diogo in Portugal. Have a listen.
Where are you in the world?
DIOGO: So I'm in Portugal, in Lisbon. I live in Lisbon. I just came to my parents' house. Because I'm just remote working, and they live in the countryside. So it's actually more quiet than to be in an apartment in Lisbon.
ASHLEY HAMER: That sounds really nice. How long have you been listening to Curiosity Daily?
DIOGO: So since last summer, not last summer, 2019 summer, at the time, I was still living in Ireland. And in Ireland, I would drive a lot, and that's why I started the podcasting. Right?
ASHLEY HAMER: Right.
DIOGO: And yours is one of the ones that I kept going, because it's just like 10 minutes of small nuggets of wisdom. Just so you know, like I was living in Ireland. So when I started listening to podcasts, they were mainly in English. And now that I'm back home, I was like-- actually, I should keep up with stuff in Portuguese.
So I'm listening more to Portuguese podcasts now. And yours is one that I've kept listening in English.
ASHLEY HAMER: Sure.
DIOGO: So just-- you'll be proud about your podcast.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes, nice, I am. So I'm going to give you three questions. And all of the questions are going to be from shows that we ran in November.
DIOGO: Nice, because I just binged it yesterday.
ASHLEY HAMER: Perfect, perfect. Then you're going to ace this. That'll be great. All right. So question number one, in a recent study, scientists found that cats were more likely to approach them if they did this. A, offered a treat, B, clicked their tongue, or C, slowly blinked.
DIOGO: It's the slowly blink.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's right.
DIOGO: Because after that, I went to try it. And I can say that it didn't work with mine. I don't know if I did it right, but probably I didn't.
ASHLEY HAMER: Right. Right. I'll do it with mine sometimes. It's hit or miss, for sure. But some cats love it. I think cats are very individual.
DIOGO: Now these are-- my parents just got two cats, like two months ago. So they're just really young. So I haven't had that much time to train.
ASHLEY HAMER: Sure, they have to learn to be cats first, I understand. All right, number two. What is the main reason that space suits are white? A, it keeps astronauts cool, B, it keeps astronauts warm, or C, it keeps astronauts visible.
DIOGO: It's fashion. No, it's just to keep them cool. Yeah?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, yeah. Right. It is very fashionable, but yes, it's to keep them cool.
DIOGO: The new ones from SpaceX, they look really nice.
ASHLEY HAMER: They do. They do. Yeah. They're what you would expect from Elon Musk and all. Right. And number three, researchers recently found that a simple exercise reduced people's motion sickness by half. What was the exercise? A, spinning in a chair, B, rotating images in their mind, or C, looking at 3D graphics.
DIOGO: I don't know this one.
ASHLEY HAMER: Ooh.
DIOGO: I'll go for B.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's right. Yes. Yes, it's called visuospatial training, and somehow being able to manipulate space in your mind makes it so your brain doesn't get as confused when you're in a moving car. It's amazing.
DIOGO: All right. OK. That's nice. That's nice to know. Why I didn't miss this one, I don't know.
ASHLEY HAMER: But yeah, you got all three right.
DIOGO: Oh, that's nice That's nice.
ASHLEY HAMER: All right. Well, thank you so much for talking to me.
DIOGO: No, thank you very much for having me. Just keep going the podcast, it's incredible. And I'm always advertising to my friends saying this, like 10 minutes, lovely. You'll learn a few things. And it's perfect for the breakfast.
ASHLEY HAMER: Awesome. Wonderful. And how good his back, because we missed Cody and all the nerdy jokes.
CODY GROUGH: That warmed my heart. That was so nice. Thank you so much for saying that. I miss my nerdy jokes too. Oh how wonderful, and thank you so much for telling your friends to listen to our show.
That is like the number one most incredible thing anyone can do for us, is just spread the word. It's just so great. You're the man. I appreciate it.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I think Diogo's prize for getting all three right is having Cody back. It's my prize too. TBH.
CODY GROUGH: Now, stop.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, how did you do on the Curiosity challenge? If you'd like to play next month, or if you have a question you'd like us to answer on the show, shoot us an email at curiosity@discovery.com, or leave us a voicemail at 312-596-5208.
CODY GROUGH: Before we recap, what we learned today, here's a sneak peek at what you'll hear next week on Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Next week, you'll learn about how we can trick bacteria into making insulin for us, why curiosity gives your memory a boost, and how female big game hunters were probably pretty common in the early Americas. We'll also talk to epidemiologist and researcher, Dr. Lawrence Purpura.
OK. So now, let's recap what we learned today.
NATALIA REAGAN: We learned that researchers discovered people actually perceive men who say they sleep more as less masculine and that men thought that if they said that they slept more, they would also be seen as less masculine. And you know, sadly they would, because that's what the researchers found. This is thought to be because choosing sleep over doing tasks says something about their motivation and their assertiveness, like choosing sleep over finishing that man cave was somehow less masculine.
And that's not great because sleep is good for you right, Cody?
CODY GROUGH: Yeah, sometimes I'm glad I have my head buried in the sand with certain social expectations. Because like I didn't know this was the thing, and I certainly don't feel like less of a man if I sleep for like 10 hours. I'll feel bad that I slept for 10 hours. And I'd be like, wow, I should be awake more, so I could do more stuff that I want to do. But yeah, sleep, people.
And we learned that lots of radiation can be relatively harmless, like the low-frequency radiation that gives us the Wi-Fi we need to stay connected. And there's also bad radiation like ionizing radiation that can strip electrons out of molecules and cause cells to die or become cancerous. But radiation is not necessarily such a bad word after all.
ASHLEY HAMER: It's almost a shame that it's all called radiation, because it's easy to think about nuclear power plants and the three-eyed fish on The Simpsons. But radiation is everything. Radiation is energy. So it just depends on what kind of radiation you're talking about.
CODY GROUGH: Also that. So Natalia, what was your favorite part of doing the show over the last few months?
NATALIA REAGAN: Oh, my goodness. I really love talking with Ashley and going over the stories. But for me, there was some really great stories. Parachuting beavers, Ashley, wasn't that great?
ASHLEY HAMER: That was a great one. I think also your Earth fart.
NATALIA REAGAN: Earth fart, yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: You've mentioned that several times since we've recorded it. It was a good one.
NATALIA REAGAN: It was quite a highlight. It was a pungent and deeply satisfying podcast. But no, also hearing from my friends that listened to it with their kids. I've done podcasts before where they weren't necessarily the most family friendly, so it's nice to hear that my friends with kids basically were making up songs to Earth fart. How cool is that?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, yeah. Well, I've had a wonderful time with you, Natalia. It's been really nice to have you on the show. It's also been nice to have you behind the scenes, get to talk to you every week, get to nerd out about science with you. So this won't be the last of you, I'm sure.
NATALIA REAGAN: No. Thank you. And to everyone at home, let me just tell you Ashley is the most amazing person to work with.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh.
NATALIA REAGAN: Seriously. Patience of-- I don't even-- a saint beyond a saint. I don't know what has a lot of patience. Cody, help me out here.
CODY GROUGH: Dude, she works with me. She has to be the most patient person that there is. And I got to say, I was terrified to listen to an episode. Because as a person that obsessively edited 700 episodes of this show, like it's kind of it was my baby before I had a real human baby.
And I listened to some, and it was good. And I was happy, and so you all have my stamp of approval. I know you worked really hard, actually worked super hard. Jonathan helping out with the editing.
Like all of you, everybody kind of came together. It was really great time. And now, I'm back. But in the future, if I have several more kids, keep an eye on your phone.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah, give me a call. You know where to find me, in my bat cave. Because I got bitten by a radioactive bat.
CODY GROUGH: Again, I'm sure we'll hear from you again on the show. So thank you, again, for filling my shoes. You crushed it.
NATALIA REAGAN: Thank you. I am honored.
CODY GROUGH: Today's story is written by Cameron Duke and Kelsey Donk and edited by Ashley Hamer, who's the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Scriptwriting was by Natalia Reagan and Sonja Hodgen. Today's episode was edited by Jonathan McMichael, and our producer is Cody Gough.
CODY GROUGH: Have a great weekend, and join us again Monday to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY HAMER: And until then, stay curious.