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: Facial Expressions Don't Express Emotions 5 LGBT Scientists That Changed the World Can You "Catch Up" on Lost Sleep? Reaching your limit when it comes to the bedroom? Take a deep dive under the covers in "The Sleep Solution" by W. Chris Winter M.D. (free with your trial membership to Audible), a book to demystify and defeat insomnia, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, and many other sleep-related discomforts. Plus, a “Sprinkle of Curiosity,” from these sources: Want to Read Faster? Stop Saying The Words in Your Head As You Read | Lifehacker Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology | American Psychological Association The phenomena of inner experience | ScienceDirect 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:
Plus, a “Sprinkle of Curiosity,” from these sources:
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/famous-lgbt-scientists-how-to-catch-up-on-sleep-faces-arent-emotions
[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 LGBT scientists who changed the world, the science behind whether you can catch up on lost sleep, and why facial expressions don't actually express emotions.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: Before we get into the stories, we have another listener question. We like to answer your questions on the Sunday edition of the podcast. So if you have something you've been wondering, please send it in to podcast@curiosity.com. This week's question comes from Stephen who writes, "I'm curious, which part of the brain does our inner voice originate from?" Stay tuned and I'll answer the question. And give you a tip for reading faster at the end of today's episode.
CODY GOUGH: Wow, I can't wait. Do I look angry to you?
ASHLEY HAMER: Rarely.
CODY GOUGH: Really? Sweet. Sometimes, I feel like-- I've seen video of myself and I feel like I have a neutral expression, but maybe have a furrowed brow, I just seem--
ASHLEY HAMER: When you get, like, overloaded with work, you get this kind of wide-eyed look. But that's all.
CODY GOUGH: So all the time. Whoops. Well, are facial expressions universal, though? Like, can you look at a person's face and see anger, or happiness, or sadness objectively? Well, research from the 70s said yes. But a new study says that facial expressions don't express emotions.
You might have heard of Paul Ekman, the guy, "Lie To Me" is based on. His 1971 study looked at people in isolated spaces like Papua New Guinea. And he found Westerners were able to interpret their facial expressions accurately. That means that our facial expressions show emotions, right.
Well, a pair of psychologists traveled to the same islands Ekman visited, but they got really involved with the communities there. Like, they learned their language, they stayed with host families, they took on clan names. And this is a recent study. And when they asked their host communities to identify emotions based on the standard Western expressions, their answers were all over the place. They saw smiling as happiness most of the time. But they disagreed on whether a scrunched up nose was disgusted or neutral for an expression.
They also overwhelmingly agreed that a gasping face, which we might think comes from shock or fear, was actually an expression of aggression and anger. So why do we make faces if it's not to show emotions? Well, it could be a way to subconsciously direct social interaction. Studies from 2017 and 2018 suggests that humans are more guarded with their inner lives and more manipulative when it comes to facial expressions than we previously thought.
So facial expressions don't exist in a vacuum. There's a cultural and a social context that we need to be aware of. And you can keep that in mind next time you think someone's giving you the stink eye. Maybe, they're just hungry.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cool, maybe they are. Hey Cody, are you going to the Pride Parade?
CODY GOUGH: I sadly cannot make it this year.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, I'm going. I'm really excited. I have a friend who has an apartment on the route. So it's going to be inside. I'm not going to get sunburned. It'll be great.
CODY GOUGH: Nice.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. Well, June is LGBT Pride Month in the United States. Did you know that some very famous scientists came from the LGBT community? Today, we wrote about some on Curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS. But here are some of their stories.
I know you know this name, Sir Francis Bacon. He was a lawyer, a statesman, and a philosopher, and oh yeah, father of the scientific method. History also suggests that he was most likely gay. He had several dozen gentleman waiters in his household. And he gave a lot of them lavish gifts and important appointments. There's also evidence in letters between his mom and brother that they were more than just servants.
Here's another one for you, Florence Nightingale. I was surprised by this one, because I wrote a report about her in fourth grade. And I've written an article about her on Curiosity. And I still didn't know this.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, wow.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, she is known as the lady with the lamp, right. She was a famous nurse. But she also made important contributions to the field of statistics and data visualization. And she's known to have had two passionate relationships with women during her life.
Another big name on the list, I think everyone knows this one, Alan Turing. He's probably got the best known story, since his Turing machine is the basis for all computers. And he's the guy who broke the Nazi enigma code during World War II, which you might remember from the 2014 film, "The Imitation Game". Anyway, Turing was openly gay. But in 1952, he was arrested for indecency because that was illegal in England at the time. His story gets worse from there. And it's really tragic.
And it makes you wonder what else he could have done for the world of science if he hadn't been punished for his lifestyle. In 2013, the British government actually granted him a posthumous pardon. One other scientist we want to mention is Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. Later, she became the director of the California Space Institute at UC San Diego. She had a loving relationship with her partner Tam O'Shaughnessy for 27 years. More names and stories today on Curiosity.com.
CODY GOUGH: All right, Ashley, do you ever catch up on lost sleep.
ASHLEY HAMER: When I was younger, I would sleep in all weekend. But I can't anymore. It's like my body just wakes up the same time every day.
CODY GOUGH: I've had a harder time with that. I distinctly remember my first Friday night at college ever, after welcome weekend, you know, the few days of orientation and staying up all night talking to people. That Friday night, I slept for 16 hours.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh my gosh.
CODY GOUGH: Straight. I went to bed-- hold on, did I go to bed at midnight? And I woke up at 4:00 PM.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow. Like youth.
CODY GOUGH: Is that the right math? Anyway, it doesn't matter. Maybe, it was 14 hours. It was 14 or 16 hours. But I remember it was definitely more than 12, because I didn't know that was possible.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: And then, I had to question my roommate because it's like, did you check to see if I was dead? Because that's a really, really long time. But I'm alive. Hey, here we are.
ASHLEY HAMER: Here we are.
CODY GOUGH: Well, I've heard varying reports about whether you can actually catch up on sleep over the years. I went to a lecture a couple years ago with a professor from Williams College. And he talked about sleep debt. Sleep debt is an actual term. And it's basically the sleep that we don't get when we don't get enough sleep. And it grows over time. Miss a couple of hours on Monday night and you can probably get through Tuesday. But miss a couple of hours every night, and by Friday, you're basically a zombie. And you don't crash for 14 hours.
Well, today, we're diving into the question of whether you actually can catch up on sleep. The National Sleep Foundation recommends just not racking up sleep debt at all, of course, get enough sleep. A new study showed that adults who slept for 5 hours or less per night had a 65% higher mortality rate than those who got 6 to 7 hours. So you don't want to die.
But let's face it, you're not always going to get to bed on time. And, fortunately, for you, that study also showed that catching up on sleep is still better than just staying sleep deprived. Remember that 65% increase in mortality rate. Well, that increase disappeared among the study's participants who caught up with their sleep on the weekend.
So it'll mess with your day-to-day brain function, but strings of late nights followed by a couple of late mornings shouldn't ruin your chances of living a long life. And a few tips for getting enough rest. Go to bed when you're tired. This seems obvious but who does that. Wake up on your own time, meaning no alarm clocks when possible. Expect to sleep a while, like, maybe 10 hours in a night at first. And let your body decide what to do.
You should fall into a rhythm after a while. And you can find a lot more details in our full write up. And you can find a link to that in the show notes.
ASHLEY HAMER: All right, if you remember, Stephen wanted to know where in the brain the inner voice comes from. Well, it turns out that your inner voice comes from the same place your outer voice comes from, a spot in the front left part of the brain called Broca's area. Unsurprisingly, that region is associated with language production and comprehension. But the motor areas of the brain are activated too, which makes some sense when you learn that inner speech is usually accompanied by tiny muscular movements in your larynx or your voice box. Wild, right?
If you have no idea what I'm talking about and have never rehearsed a conversation with your boss, or done silent karaoke, or read out loud in your head, that's actually pretty normal. According to a 2008 study, only about a quarter of people actually talk to themselves in their heads. Also, Cody, did you know that you can read faster if you stop saying the words in your head?
CODY GOUGH: No.
ASHLEY HAMER: Do you say the words in your head when you read?
CODY GOUGH: I don't think so.
ASHLEY HAMER: I know. It's one of those things you don't really know if you do or not.
CODY GOUGH: If I want to really increase the comprehension of what I'm reading, sometimes, I'll slow down and read it kind of out loud in my head or literally out loud. You know, it Increases comprehension but not speed, certainly.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, I make all sorts of noises when I'm writing articles. I do.
CODY GOUGH: What does that mean?
ASHLEY HAMER: That means I, like, read out loud. I make little comments to myself.
CODY GOUGH: You're, like, squeaking in the corner.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, just weird noises.
CODY GOUGH: Do you mouth words?
ASHLEY HAMER: No, I don't mouth words. But I think there are different levels of that. And I think some people might actually mouth the words. Some people read out loud in their heads. Like, you actually hear it in your inner voice. And there's a lovely Lifehacker article that talks about how you shouldn't do that. Just if you can avoid reading out loud in your head, you can just read the words much quicker because it doesn't have to go through Broca's area.
And one way to do that if you're really set in your ways, if you always read out loud in your head, try to keep your mouth occupied while you read. So, like, chew gum, or eat food, or something like that. And then, you can kind of rid yourself of that habit. And you can read a little faster.
CODY GOUGH: I'm always drinking water. So that's not too hard. Well, you can read about all the stories we talked about. And we'll put a link in the show notes to the Lifehacker article and to more resources about your inner voice in the show notes. But you can read everything else on Curiosity.com.
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.
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SPEAKER: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.