Learn about Benjamin Banneker, an African-American polymath you need to know about; the Seinfeld Strategy for improving your productivity; and how an MIT student wants to contact aliens with a massive laser beam. Plus: professional wrestler Chris Jericho keeps coming up in conversation, thanks to one of the hosts who will remain unnamed. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Benjamin Banneker Was an African-American Polymath You Need to Know About — https://curiosity.im/2DaC5tJ The Seinfeld Strategy Can Help You Be Productive and Prolific — https://curiosity.im/2DaK4Hh This MIT Student Wants to Contact Aliens With a Massive Laser Beam — https://curiosity.im/2RDdWPy Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Learn about Benjamin Banneker, an African-American polymath you need to know about; the Seinfeld Strategy for improving your productivity; and how an MIT student wants to contact aliens with a massive laser beam. Plus: professional wrestler Chris Jericho keeps coming up in conversation, thanks to one of the hosts who will remain unnamed.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron!
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/contacting-aliens-with-lasers-african-american-polymath-benjamin-banneker-and-the-seinfeld-strategy
[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 about Benjamin Banneker, an African American polymath you need to know about, the Seinfeld strategy for improving your productivity, and how an MIT student wants to contact aliens with a massive laser beam.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity on the award winning Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: We're going to start with a history lesson. Because today is the 287th birthday of Benjamin Banneker. He's a polymath you should definitely know about. He was a mathematician, astronomer, scientist, author, farmer, urban planner, and publisher. And here's the kicker. He accomplished all of that as a Black man in the era of slavery. To say he overcame obstacles is putting it mildly.
CODY GOUGH: This is an awesome story. Although fun fact-- today is also Carl Sagan's birthday.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's right.
CODY GOUGH: But we already know about him. And it's also Chris Jericho's birthday. He's one of my favorite professional wrestlers of all time.
ASHLEY HAMER: Why, that is the first I've heard his name, so.
CODY GOUGH: All right, well, we all learned something today.
ASHLEY HAMER: We all learned something. I'm always looking to learn more things about professional wrestling.
[LAUGHS]
Well, back to our actual story. Benjamin Banneker was born in 1731. And he fortunately never had to endure slavery. His dad was a freed slave from Guinea, and his mom was the daughter of an indentured English servant and a freed African slave. Banneker's maternal grandmother taught him to read, and he attended a one-room Quaker school for a time. But other than that, he taught himself everything he could about astronomy, mathematics, and mechanics.
He also became skilled in farming and surveying, and he even built an irrigation system for the family farm. But that was the tip of the iceberg for what he was able to do. When he was 22 years old, he constructed a clock entirely out of wood-- even though he'd only seen one mechanical watch in his entire life. Supposedly, that clock ran nonstop for 40 years. And it was the first clock built in the, quote, unquote, "new world," as it was called at the time.
During the Revolutionary War, he designed a farm that grew wheat to feed US troops. In 1789, he made a nearly perfect prediction of a solar eclipse. And the only problems with his calculations were because of discrepancies in his sources. The inaccuracy wasn't even his fault. And he published an almanac every year from 1792 to 1797. They included astronomical calculations, literature, opinion pieces, and medical and title information.
As if that wasn't enough, Banneker had one more major claim to fame, this time involving Thomas Jefferson. When Jefferson was still Secretary of State, Banneker wrote him a letter criticizing him for his views on slavery. He included one of his almanacs with his letter to show Jefferson that he was right when he said that all men are created equal. And Jefferson responded with surprising enthusiasm. In fact, Jefferson was so impressed with Banneker that he hired him to survey territory for construction of the US Capitol. You can read more details of their correspondence in our full write-up on curiosity.com and on our Curiosity App for Android and iOS.
But now you know about one of history's most interesting scientists. And we're glad he beat the odds.
CODY GOUGH: Today in Productivity Hacks, we've got some advice from none other than comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Hey Ashley, what's the deal with productivity?
[LAUGHS]
Get it?
ASHLEY HAMER: I get it, because it's-- because Seinfeld says, what's the deal a lot.
CODY GOUGH: Yep.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's the joke.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cool.
CODY GOUGH: Well, I'm done.
[LAUGHS]
Well in case you're wondering what you could possibly learn from Jerry Seinfeld about productivity, think about this. He made $267 million in a single year, all the way back in 1998. This guy knows how to work it. Now for comedians, you've got to write new material all the time. But it's not always easy to stay motivated. So Seinfeld reportedly told goal setting blogger Brad Isaac about a tactic that's now known as the Seinfeld strategy.
Put down your Junior Mints and listen up. Supposedly, Seinfeld said to get a big year long calendar, big enough to cover a whole wall. For every day you accomplish that task of writing a new joke or whatever your goal is, mark off each day's square with a big red X. After a few days of, say, writing jokes, you'll have a chain of red X's. What you write every day doesn't have to be usable or even good, but you just have to do it.
Your only mission at this point is to not break the chain. And that's it. You may know this productivity method by another name, the X effect. Basically the same rules apply, save for the recommendation of index cards instead of a wall calendar. But having a giant visual right there plus the satisfaction of seeing a big red X for every day you've accomplished your goal-- just don't break the chain, and you'll be good to go.
ASHLEY HAMER: Today's episode is sponsored by Purple Mattress. How did you sleep last night?
CODY GOUGH: I actually had this thing in my shoulder last week after I got back from vacation. It's fine now, but I mean, it was pretty annoying for a few days. I guess that's what I get for traveling and sleeping in someone else's bed who does not have a Purple Mattress.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. The Purple Mattress will probably feel different than anything you've ever experienced, because it uses this brand new material that was developed by an actual rocket scientist. It's not like the memory foam you're probably used to. The Purple material feels unique because it's both firm and soft at the same time. So it keeps everything supported, but it still feels really comfortable. It's also breathable, so it sleeps cool.
CODY GOUGH: With Purple Mattress, you can get a 100-night risk free trial. And if you're not fully satisfied, you can return your mattress for a full refund. You'll also get free shipping and returns, and it's backed by a 10-year warranty so you have one more reason to sleep easy.
ASHLEY HAMER: You're going to love Purple. And right now, Curiosity Daily listeners will get a free Purple pillow with a purchase of a mattress. That's in addition to the great free gifts they're offering sitewide. Just text curious to 474747. The only way to get this free pillow is to text curious to 474747.
CODY GOUGH: That's C-U-R-I-O-U-S to 474747. Message and data rates may apply.
ASHLEY HAMER: An MIT student wants to contact aliens with a massive laser beam. A new early stage study proposes creating a beacon from Earth that could be seen as far as 20,000 light years away. Ready to announce to the universe that we're here?
CODY GOUGH: I'm not so sure we are, but why not? I mean, Chris Jericho would be an excellent ambassador to the aliens.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, whether or not he would be, the laser we're talking about actually is more feasible than you think. Graduate student James Clark is the lead author of a new study that says we could send a message that would reach TRAPPIST-1 in just a few years. That's a star that's 40 light years away and may be home to three habitable exoplanets. Habitable.
CODY GOUGH: Habitable.
ASHLEY HAMER: In theory, all the project would need is a one to two megawatt laser. Scientists would focus the beam through a 30 to 45 meter telescope and then point the thing at space. The result would be a huge channel of infrared radiation that would be strong enough to see from far away, even with our nearby Sun hogging a lot of the infrared energy in the neighborhood.
Clark says it's possible we could even make this signal with today's technology. The US Air Force once developed an airborne laser of one to two megawatts that was supposed to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles. And as for a 30-meter telescope, that's something we might have very soon. Two telescopes of similar size are already under construction. The 24-meter Giant Magellan Telescope, and the 39-meter European Extremely Large Telescope.
CODY GOUGH: That's its actual name.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's its actual name. Telescope names are weird. Before we turn on this laser beacon though, Clark says we should consider some safety issues. Even though the beam's invisible, it could still hurt a person's vision if they looked in the wrong direction. It'll also be strong enough to mess up cameras of any orbiting spacecraft going through the beam's path.
One solution could be to build the laser on the Moon. But one way or another, this new way of contacting faraway worlds could mean the human race is ready for primetime.
CODY GOUGH: Get ready to break the walls down?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, because he's Jericho? That's nice.
CODY GOUGH: That's his music.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cool.
CODY GOUGH: It's actually really good.
That's all for today, but here's a sneak peek at what you can learn about on curiosity.com this weekend.
ASHLEY HAMER: This weekend, you'll learn about a new microscopic technique that'll let you watch an embryo develop cell by cell, the island where the last uncontacted people on Earth live, deja reve, an even weirder version of deja vu, a hypothesis that the language you speak determines your reality, and more.
CODY GOUGH: And if there's something else you're curious about, just email your question to podcast@curiosity.com. We could answer it Sunday or some other day.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's podcast@curiosity.com. Come hang out with us again Sunday on 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. Have a great weekend.
ASHLEY HAMER: And stay curious.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
On the Westwood One Podcast Network.