Learn how Spiritualism made Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini fast friends — and how it caused their falling out; how to read food labels in the U.S.; how to keep your jack-o’-lantern from spoiling; and why it’s hard to declare yourself a sovereign nation, even if you buy your own island. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Were BFFs Who Had a Spooky Falling-Out Here's How to Read a Food Label Follow These 8 Steps to Keep Your Jack-O'-Lantern from Spoiling 5 Fascinating Micronations Around the World Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Learn how Spiritualism made Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini fast friends — and how it caused their falling out; how to read food labels in the U.S.; how to keep your jack-o’-lantern from spoiling; and why it’s hard to declare yourself a sovereign nation, even if you buy your own island.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/arthur-conan-doyle-and-harry-houdinis-friendship-how-to-read-food-labels-jack-o-lantern-maintenance-and-declaring-sovereignty
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got the latest and greatest from curiositydotcom to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn what made Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini fast friends and what caused their falling out, how to read food labels in the US, and how to keep your jack-o'-lantern from spoiling. We'll also answer a listener question about how to declare your own sovereign nation.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity on the award-winning Curiosity Daily. You've probably heard of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-- the creator of Sherlock Holmes and you've also, probably, heard of Harry Houdini-- possibly the most famous escape artist of all time. But did you also know they were once very good friends before they had a spooky falling out? Today, we'll get into their surprisingly paranormal story. It is October after all.
ASHLEY HAMER: I love hearing about celebrities in history who were good friends like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. I didn't know they were friends and they were like best buds. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was an author and Harry Houdini was a magician. That seems weird.
CODY GOUGH: It'd be like if J.K. Rowling was really good friends with Elon Musk.
ASHLEY HAMER: Totally.
CODY GOUGH: Think how weird that would be.
ASHLEY HAMER: This is exactly like that.
CODY GOUGH: Well, this all centers around spiritualism which we talked about on a recent episode of this show. In the 1800s and early 1900s, pretty much everyone in the world was super into mediums, mystics, and magicians who said that they had an actual connection to a world beyond ours. The story starts around 1892 when Harry Houdini was devastated after his father passed away.
He was 18 years old at the time and he started reaching out to spiritualists so he could talk to his dad. He was a smart guy though. So when they proved over and over again to be ineffective at best and obvious frauds at worst, he was over it. But Houdini revisited spiritualism decades later when he was grieving his mother's death in 1913.
Just after that in 1918, Conan Doyle got involved in spiritualism after his son, Kingsley, was killed in World War I. The difference was that Conan Doyle found a kind of peace after working with these mediums. He was a member of the British Society for Psychical Research-- psychical is and psychic-al research. And became one of the practices' main evangelists.
He and Houdini eventually met in 1920 and they disagreed about spiritualism from the start. But for years, they exchanged letters that were written in good spirit with only gentle disagreements here and there. Well, 1922 put an end to that in pretty much the worst way ever. Conan Doyle's wife Jean was a practicing medium and she offered to give Houdini a private seance when he and his family were on a seaside vacation in Atlantic City.
It didn't go well. Houdini's mother spoke to him in the wrong language and failed to mention the fact that the day was her birthday among other faux pas. Houdini penned an article in December of that year saying he had never encountered any communication from beyond the grave. Conan Doyle was livid and their relationship never recovered. The moral of the story, do not offer to perform a private seance where you communicate with your friend's dead mother. Not even on Halloween.
ASHLEY HAMER: Man. You'd think that that would just be in the manners books.
CODY GOUGH: You'd think that'd be implied?
ASHLEY HAMER: Food labels can be hard to read. But it's important to know what you're putting in your body. That's why today we've got some tips for reading food labels along with recommendations to make your next trip to the grocery store a little easier. So in this kind of food label 101, let's start with serving size, which is supposedly the amount of food you eat in one sitting. But that's based on what people ate in 1993.
But the good news is, thanks to new regulations, you should see more realistic serving sizes in the future. Then there's calories, which is the amount of energy in a single serving. The whole label is based on an average daily intake of 2,000 calories. But how much you should actually eat depends on your age, your size, your activity level, and your individual goals.
And not all calories are created equal. It takes more energy to burn through a calorie of protein than to burn through a calorie of sugar. Further down the label, next to each nutrient, you'll see how many grams of it you're about to get alongside the total percentage of your daily recommended amount of that nutrient, assuming you're eating 2,000 calories a day. Here's what the FDA recommends.
First, 65 grams of fat. But like calories, not all fat is created equal. Unsaturated fats are so-called healthy fats, saturated fats aren't that good for you and you should try not to eat more than 20 grams a day of those. And cut out all trans fat if you can. Contrary to popular belief, cholesterol in your diet doesn't really affect how much cholesterol is in your blood. So you don't need to worry much about this nutrient unless your doctor has told you otherwise.
Carbohydrates can also be confusing. According to the FDA, you should shoot for 300 grams of carbs a day. In that carb category, you should try to include 20 grams of dietary fiber. Also in that category are sugars, which sure are kind of a mess. Naturally-occurring sugars are all right but added sugar is tricky. The American Heart Association suggests consuming no more than 25 grams of added sugar a day for women and 37 grams for men.
Future nutrition facts labels will separate the two types of sugars, which is good news for everyone. Then for protein, the FDA recommends getting 50 grams a day. And for sodium, the CDC says, try to eat less than 2,300 milligrams per day. But you might want to take that with a grain of salt.
CODY GOUGH: Ha ha.
ASHLEY HAMER: Ha ha. In 2014, an analysis of previous research suggested the CDC's limits are way too low. If you're looking for your ideal sodium intake, it's a good idea to just ask your doctor. Happy eating.
CODY GOUGH: Have you heard Halloween is coming up? Listen, it's no treat when your super cool jack-o'-lantern shrivels and decays on your front stoop. Fortunately, we've got just the trick for keeping your jack-o'-lantern from spoiling too early. I am going to use trick and treat puns almost daily--
ASHLEY HAMER: Do it.
CODY GOUGH: --this month.
ASHLEY HAMER: I'm ready for it.
CODY GOUGH: In case you missed this story on jack-o'-lantern maintenance from Saturday, we've got you covered. First, you need to buy the right pumpkin. You can tell how old the pumpkin is by the colors of its stem. The greener the stem, the more recent the harvest. Now, here's a fun fact. The stem actually delivers nutrients to the pumpkin. So it's not just there for decoration.
So you know how you usually cut a hole around the top of the pumpkin that cuts out the stem when you scoop out its guts, not so good if the stem is actually giving the pumpkin nutrients. So instead, try to cut a hole in the back of the pumpkin so the stem can keep doing its thing as long as possible. Make sure the pumpkin you pick doesn't have any soft spots or open cuts either since those will let in spoilage happy germs.
Speaking of germs, pumpkin spoil in part thanks to moles and microbes. You can fight against that by keeping your pumpkin cold or even wrapped in plastic wrap when it's not on display. Your refrigerator will do wonders for this, but if you're lucky, it'll just be cold enough for you to put it outside so you can save some space in your fridge.
If you want to get really hardcore, you can kill microorganisms that try to live in the pumpkin by soaking or spraying it with a dilution of bleach or borax and water. You can also smear the cut areas of the pumpkin with petroleum jelly like Vaseline or a generic clone. That'll lock the moisture into the pumpkin to keep it from drying out, just like what it does for your skin.
And finally, if you're putting a light inside your autumnal art, then use an electric light or glow stick if you can. Candles are great but they can cook the gourd and make it spoil faster. That's certainly no treat.
ASHLEY HAMER: Good one.
[LAUGHTER]
We got a listener question from Patreon Stargate Pioneer who asks, "Can you actually buy your own island? I'm thinking warm tropical South Pacific area, and declare your own sovereign nation?" I didn't just choose this question because Stargate Pioneer recognizes me as Curiosity Daily's sovereign podcast host, I also chose it because our Patreon patrons get first dibs on getting their questions answered. Fancy.
The short answer to whether you can buy your own island and just make it a sovereign nation, not really. The thing about buying an island is that you have to buy it from someone. And that someone is usually its own sovereign nation. I mean, imagine buying a few acres of land out in the country and declaring that your own nation. It's not that simple.
Unless you're bringing your own military to fight off the national government that will surely want to keep its land under its control, you're probably stuck living in the country the island came from. But let's say, you don't buy your island. You find some unclaimed land instead. There's a bunch in Antarctica for starters. That would be tough though. Not only because that land is technically supposed to be left unclaimed, but also because your country wouldn't have any of its own resources. It's hard to maintain an agricultural industry in a frozen wasteland.
But say, you did claim unclaimed land and figured out a way to make it work financially. You'd still need to be recognized by the International community. There's no application form to become a country. It's more like a great big popularity contest with each nation deciding which other nations it recognizes as sovereign. Seriously, the number of countries in the world varies by about 100 depending on who you ask.
Difficulties aside though, there are a handful of micro nations around the world that have self-declared their sovereignty even though their surrounding nations might not recognize it. You can read all about them on curiositydotcom and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS. We'll include a link in the show notes.
CODY GOUGH: Before we wrap up, we want to give a special shout out to one of our patrons for supporting our show. Today's episode is brought to you by Dr. Mary Yancey who gets an executive producer credit today for her generous support on Patreon. Thank you so much.
ASHLEY HAMER: If you're listening and you want to support Curiosity Daily, then visit Patreon.com/curiositydotcom, all spelled out.
CODY GOUGH: Read about today's stories and more on curiositydotcom.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow with the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
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