Learn about the link between birthdays and COVID-19; “psychological richness” for a good life; and satellites vs. stars. More from Dr. Bapu Jena: Listen to Freakonomics, M.D.: https://freakonomics.com/freakonomics-md/ Covid and the “Birthday Effect” (Freakonomics, M.D. Ep. 1) - Freakonomics. (2021, August 4). Freakonomics. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/covid-and-the-birthday-effect-freakonomics-m-d-ep-1/ Follow @AnupamBJena on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnupamBJena Follow @DrBapuPod on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBapuPod Harvard faculty page: https://hcp.hms.harvard.edu/people/anupam-b-jena We’ve neglected the role of “psychological richness” when considering what makes a good life by Steffie Drucker We’ve Neglected The Role Of “Psychological Richness” When Considering What Makes A Good Life, Study Argues. (2021, September 14). Research Digest. https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/09/14/weve-neglected-the-role-of-psychological-richness-when-considering-what-makes-a-good-life-study-argues/ Oishi, S., & Westgate, E. C. (2021). A psychologically rich life: Beyond happiness and meaning. Psychological Review. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000317 Beyond Happiness: Why a Psychologically Rich Life Is a Good Life. (2021). Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/living-single/202108/beyond-happiness-why-psychologically-rich-life-is-good-life How to tell an artificial satellite from a star by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Nero in Ghana) Space. (2021). Brown.edu. https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/13things/7656.html Palma, C. (2018, April 5). Look up – it’s a satellite! The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/look-up-its-a-satellite-94272 The Savvy Satellite Spotting Guide. (2014, November 8). AeroSavvy. https://aerosavvy.com/satellite-spotting/ GPS.gov: Space Segment. (2021). Gps.gov. https://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/space/ Carter, J. (2020, April 25). Is That A Planet, A Star Or A SpaceX Starlink Satellite? The Stargazing Apps You Need During Lockdown. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2020/04/24/is-that-a-planet-a-star-or-a-spacex-starlink-the-five-best-augmented-reality-stargazing-apps-you-need-during-lockdown/?sh=7997cff244fe 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 about the link between birthdays and COVID-19; “psychological richness” for a good life; and satellites vs. stars.
More from Dr. Bapu Jena:
We’ve neglected the role of “psychological richness” when considering what makes a good life by Steffie Drucker
How to tell an artificial satellite from a star by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Nero in Ghana)
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.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/birthday-effect-psychological-richness-star-or-satellite
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about the surprising link between birthdays and COVID-19, with “Freakonomics, M.D.” host Dr. Bapu Jena; and why you should consider the role of “psychological richness” when it comes to making a good life. We’ll also answer a listener question about how to tell the difference between an artificial satellite and a star.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
By now, we all know that going to large gatherings full of strangers increases our risk of COVID infection. But what about small gatherings with people we know and trust? While you might consider that to be safe, Dr. Bapu Jena is back to give us the evidence — thanks to a fascinating study involving birthday parties. Dr. Bapu Jena is a professor at Harvard Medical School, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research with both an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Economics. He's also the host of the new podcast Freakonomics, M.D., which explores fascinating ideas at the intersection of medicine, behavioral science and economics. He told us what made him start thinking about this.
[CLIP 3:30]
You heard him — there's always going to be some risk. Whether that's a risk you want to take is up to you. Again, that was Dr. Bapu Jena, host of the new podcast Freakonomics, M.D. You can find a link to the podcast in today's show notes.
What defines a good life? Ask 10 different people and you’ll get 10 different answers. But in a new study, scientists say there’s one aspect of a good life that’s often overlooked: psychological richness.
See, despite what your average person on the street says about what makes a good life, scientists have generally narrowed it down to two dimensions: there’s garden-variety happiness, which they call hedonistic well being, and there’s a sense of meaning and purpose, which they call eudaimonic well being. They both contribute to a good life in different ways. But the team behind this new study argues that’s not enough — a good life also needs psychological richness.
Living a “psychologically rich” life means having unique, interesting experiences that change your outlook. This can be as simple as hanging out with different types of people or a larger experience like studying abroad. Psychologically rich experiences don’t even need to be positive — divorce or loss can be painful, but they can still offer new perspectives.
To support their theory, researchers asked 500 college students to choose from a list of characteristics that best described their lives. The researchers also analyzed the adjectives used in hundreds of obituaries. They found that all of these attributes could be grouped into three dimensions: happiness, meaning, and psychological richness. Even though these dimensions are distinct, the researchers found that they can influence one another. For example, in the obituaries, people who had more psychologically rich lives also had less happy lives.
Of course, all this proved was that psychological richness was distinct from happiness and meaning. To show that it’s an element of a good life, the team asked people around the world to choose characteristics of their ideal life from a list that included traits from all three categories. The participants’ answers showed that happiness, meaning, and psychological richness were all key ingredients for an ideal life.
Then, the researchers pressed them: if they could only choose one kind of life, which would they choose? In that case, a happy life was most popular, followed by one filled with meaning. But a substantial minority of people would choose a psychologically rich life at the expense of the other two.
To lead a good life, aim for plenty of happy, meaningful experiences — but don’t forget to keep it interesting.
We got a listener question from Nero [like “narrow”] in Ghana. Take a listen!
[question 0:05]
In case you didn’t catch that, Nero asked how to tell an artificial satellite from a star.
As of April of this year, there are more than 4,000 operational satellites in orbit around our planet — and thousands more that have been decommissioned. You can’t see all of them with the naked eye. But the bigger, more reflective ones are visible in a very dark sky, thanks to sunlight glinting off of their solar panels and other surfaces. That reflection can often make them look like a star — although, satellites often blink in and out of view thanks to changes in their reflected light, while stars just keep on shining. But besides that, there’s a really simple way to tell satellites and stars apart: you can actually see most satellites move across the sky, while a star appears to stay in one place. In reality, neither stay in the same place: most stars at least appear to move across the sky as our planet rotates on its axis, while many satellites are literally circling our planet. But the speed at which they do that is very different.
A given star might take the entire night to move across the sky, while most satellites move much faster. Low-orbit satellites move the fastest: they complete an orbit in around 90 minutes. These satellites are mostly used for communications and observation, like the famed StarLink satellites from SpaceX and the International Space Station. You can literally watch these speedy satellites track a long path across the sky over several minutes. Middle-orbit satellites are higher up and usually used for weather prediction and, famously, GPS. These satellites take anywhere from two up to 24 hours to circle the planet. Finally, way up high, there are satellites in geosynchronous or geostationary orbit — that means that they orbit at the same speed that the Earth turns, so they don’t appear to move at all from our vantage point.
But like I said, there are only some satellites that you can spot with the naked eye. The brightest satellite you can spot is the International Space Station, which can shine brighter than the planet Venus. The Hubble Space Telescope is really bright too. Communications satellites launched by the company Iridium are also easy to spot by their so-called “iridium flares,” where reflected sunlight makes them go from invisible to super bright and back again in less than a minute.
For help identifying what you’re seeing, check out one of the many augmented-reality smartphone apps designed for stargazing. All you need to do is point your phone at the object in question, and you’ll get your answer. Thanks for your question, Nero [narrow]! If you have a question, send it in to curiosity at discovery dot com, or leave us a voicemail at 312-596-5208.
CODY: Before we recap what we learned today, here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll hear next week on Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Next week, you’ll learn about a psychological reason why holiday shopping can get so hostile;
What the Perseverance Rover helped us learn about the Jezero Crater on Mars;
Why you fall into a “food coma” after you eat too much — and why you wake up hungry the next day;
The surprising history of psychedelics research in the US;
And more! Okay, so now, let’s recap what we learned today.
[ad lib optional]
ASHLEY: The writer for today’s “psychological richness” story was Steffie Drucker.
CODY: The audio editor for today’s episode was our managing editor Ashley Hamer, who was also a writer on today’s episode.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer, who was also a writer and audio editor on today’s episode.
ASHLEY: Our producer and lead audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: Have a great weekend! [AD LIB SOMETHING FUNNY] Then, join us again Monday to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!