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: People Who Think Their Beliefs Are Better Than Others' Probably Know the Least Days on Earth Are Getting Longer. Here's Why The 9-Step Checklist Mr. Rogers Used for Talking to Children 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.
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/belief-superiority-why-days-are-getting-longer-and-mr-rogers-checklist
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com 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 why days on Earth are getting longer, what it means when you think your beliefs are better than other people's, and the nine-step checklist Mister Rogers used for talking to children.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity. All right, Ashley. Have you ever felt like you know better than everyone else?
ASHLEY HAMER: Ah, no comment. [CHUCKLES] I think you've been in a pitch meeting with me. I could get pretty obnoxious.
CODY GOUGH: I think you're pretty good at walking back when somebody is like, no, hang on.
ASHLEY HAMER: All right.
CODY GOUGH: But to be fair, you're usually right about stuff.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, thank you.
CODY GOUGH: So it's not a compliment. It's just an observation. There's no intended--
ASHLEY HAMER: You're going to steal the monster. Don't say things like that. [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: [CHUCKLES] OK. I'll be careful.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: Well, a new study suggests that people who think their beliefs are better than everyone else is probably know the least, and we're talking about people with a high degree of what's called belief superiority. That's not just how confident you are in something, but it's how much you think that belief is better than those of other people.
So confidence is in absolute value. You're always confident. But belief superiority changes based on what you think of others opinions. And researchers out of University of Michigan, Ann Arbor talked to people from lots of different demographics and viewpoints. And they asked about politically contentious topics. And they found that participants with the most belief superiority were less informed about the things they felt the most strongly about. And they were less likely to look for information that might expand their knowledge about those things.
So if you believe that climate change is wrong and anyone who believes in it is stupid, then according to this study, you probably don't know really anything about what scientists are saying, and you're not likely to try to understand it. The silver lining is that the participants who were biased against, say, news stories they didn't like were absolutely aware of that tendency in themselves. So at least, they knew that bias was there.
And when the researchers tried to lower their belief superiority, those same participants were more likely to try reading horizon-expanding think pieces. So maybe the answer is that the next time you're feeling especially fired up about something, it's a great opportunity to step back and consider a different point of view.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. that makes sense because the more information you have about something, the more ways you can think of that other people might find a different point of view in it, right?
CODY GOUGH: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: That's what I get frustrated when people don't want to hear anything about what the other side has to say because there's that old adage, "know thy enemy."
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, right.
CODY GOUGH: But even just knowing what someone else's argument is makes your argument stronger.
ASHLEY HAMER: It really does.
CODY GOUGH: And speaking of things people believe, I have to call something out.
ASHLEY HAMER: What's that?
CODY GOUGH: If your belief superiority says that you don't need to back up your files on your computer, then you need to reexamine that belief. I nearly lost all of my pictures and videos and data in a computer incident a few years ago. And if it can happen to me, then it can happen to you. And that's why you need to start backing up your computer files right now today.
ASHLEY HAMER: And we'll make it easy because this episode is brought to you by Backblaze, cloud storage that's astonishingly easy. And just $5 a month, you'll get unlimited cloud backup for documents, music, photos, drawings, and more.
CODY GOUGH: We use Backblaze to back up our podcast data, like our theme song, uncut interviews, full-sized uncompressed files, those little whoosh sound effects that we use between stories.
ASHLEY HAMER: Those are super important.
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CODY GOUGH: Sign up today to get a fully featured 15-day trial at backblaze.com/curiosity. Sign up, play around with the settings, and start protecting yourself from the potential bad times today.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's backblaze.com/curiosity. Take charge of your digital life right now with Backblaze. Cody, do you ever get the feeling that days are getting longer?
CODY GOUGH: I've actually always had this theory that the Earth does not rotate perfectly around the sun at the exact same rate and the exact same speed all the time, and the days probably have varied and maybe that's why sometimes the seasons vary over the millennia. But I have no idea if that's true.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's actually very close to true. I'm not sure about the seasons part, but the rotation of the Earth has sped up and slowed down just a little bit over the Earth's existence.
CODY GOUGH: Ah. I knew it.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. You're right. So researchers have actually figured out how much our planet's rotation has slowed over time overall. Lots of things in our solar system exert force on our planet, not just the moon. All those forces combine and create variations in Earth's orbit around the sun, its rotation, and even its wobble on its axis.
Those variations are known as Milankovitch cycles. And they determine how the sun's rays strike Earth. And that affects our climate. Variations in the climate leave evidence in the geologic record. And scientists can analyze that to see our planet's climate history, and therefore its Milankovitch cycles, at least in the last hundreds of millions of years or so.
Well, last month, researchers teamed up and used a new statistical method to figure out how much our days have changed. You can read all the details today on curiosity.com and the Curiosity app for Android and iOS. But get this. 1.4 billion years ago, a day on Earth lasted a little more than 18 hours, and the moon was about 27,000 miles closer than it is today. Now that must have been quite a nightlight.
CODY GOUGH: All right, Ashley. Did you watch Mister Rogers' Neighborhood growing up?
ASHLEY HAMER: Always. That was one of the two shows my mom allowed me to watch actually.
CODY GOUGH: What's the other one?
ASHLEY HAMER: Ah, Sesame Street.
CODY GOUGH: Right.
ASHLEY HAMER: And then a little bit of Lamb Chop's Play-Along, but I was really getting away with something with that.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. I was going to say she endured the song that never ends.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES] Yes.
CODY GOUGH: [CHUCKLES] That's impressive.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yup.
CODY GOUGH: Well, if you've ever wondered just what made Mister Rogers' Neighborhood so magical, other than Fred Rogers, then you'll want to hear this. In 1977, about 10 years after Misters Rogers' Neighborhood debuted, a couple of the show's writers sat down with Mister Rogers and picked apart how he talks to young children on the show. They called his style Fredish. And they actually put together an illustrated manual that lays out how to speak Fredish.
They came up basically with a nine-step checklist for translating everyday English into Fredish. Step one is starting with a simple, clear idea so a preschooler can understand it, like it's dangerous to play in the street. But that's just step one. Then each step rephrases a little to make it more kid friendly. So step two has to rephrase it in a positive manner. Instead of it's dangerous to play in the street, you say it's good to play where it's safe. How does a preschooler know where it's safe?
Step three says to rephrase the idea so they know where to go to figure that out. So the phrase becomes, ask your parents were it's safe to play. And from there, you rephrase certain elements in each step, little things like saying, parents will tell you, the parents can tell you where it's safe to play.
And we won't get into every single step, but in the end, you go from it's dangerous to play in the street to your favorite grown-ups can tell you where it is safe to play. It is important to try to listen to them, and listening is an important part of growing. That sounds like Fredish to me.
Let's try it here. Read about all of today's stories and more on curiosity.com in Fredish that might translate to this. You can learn a lot when you read stories on curiosity.com. Learning new things helps you grow as a person.
ASHLEY HAMER: Aww.
CODY GOUGH: [CHUCKLES]
ASHLEY HAMER: I love it.
CODY GOUGH: So we end every episode that way now?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes. [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: It's a bit more of a mouthful.
ASHLEY HAMER: I'll change my cardigan as I walk into the podcast studio.
CODY GOUGH: I'm not sure how many preschoolers are listening to us talk about the rotation of the Earth around the sun, but you never know. We are family friendly.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow for the 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.
NARRATOR: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.
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