Curiosity Daily

Fantasy Stock League, Redhead Pain Tolerance (w/ Natalia Reagan), and the Darkest Town in America

Episode Summary

Hosts Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss a story about the darkest town in America (when it’s not hosting Burning Man), then learn about how redheads experience pain differently (with some help from Natalia Reagan), to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes! Plus: learn about the Fantasy Stock League with special guest Patrick Chism from today’s sponsor, Quicken Loans! Please also feel free to visit Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans to learn more about their all-new RateShield Approval. Natalia Reagan is an anthropologist, primatologist, actor, producer, writer, host and comedienne. She is a comedy writer and correspondent on Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk on Nat Geo and is also a StarTalk All-Star podcast host. She was the co-host on Spike TV's show "10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty" where she judged contestants searching for "the world's greatest hide and go seek champion.” Her goal is to meld her passions of science and comedy by educating people about human and animal behavior using humor. More from Natalia Reagan: Official Website StarTalk Bio IMDB Profile Follow @natalia13reagan on Twitter Follow @natalia13reagan on Instagram If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please considersupporting 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 onCuriosity.com, and download our5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable ourAlexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!

Episode Notes

Plus: learn about the Fantasy Stock League with special guest Patrick Chism from today’s sponsor, Quicken Loans! Please also feel free to visit Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans to learn more about their all-new RateShield Approval.

Natalia Reagan is an anthropologist, primatologist, actor, producer, writer, host and comedienne. She is a comedy writer and correspondent on Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk on Nat Geo and is also a StarTalk All-Star podcast host. She was the co-host on Spike TV's show "10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty" where she judged contestants searching for "the world's greatest hide and go seek champion.” Her goal is to meld her passions of science and comedy by educating people about human and animal behavior using humor.

Episode Transcription

CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got the latest and greatest from curiosity.com along with a couple of special guests 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 the darkest town in America, how redheads experience pain differently, and how you can get smarter about your money with the Fantasy Stock League in an interview with a special guest brought to you by today's sponsor Quicken Loans.

CODY GOUGH: For some help talking about redheads, we sat down with Natalia Reagan. She's an anthropologist, TV host, and comedy writer and correspondent on Neil deGrasse Tyson StarTalk on Nat Geo among many other titles and accolades. Stay tuned and Natalia will help us answer a listener question about redheads and painkillers.

ASHLEY HAMER: Let's satisfy some curiosity. In 2012, NASA launched a satellite that collected data on light pollution all over the world. And it found the largest dark patch in the United States. It's the best place in the country to catch a view of the Milky Way. The largest dark patch in the US is in Northwestern Nevada. And right in the middle of it is a place that's been called the darkest town in America, Gerlach, Nevada, population 206.

It's a former railroad town and the nearest moderately sized city is Redding, California, which is 5 hours away. It's a great spot for stargazing since traffic rarely passes through, except for one little thing every summer called Burning Man. Almost 70,000 people have attended the festival every year for the last few years. And it makes sense that the festival's organizers chose this part of Nevada for the festival since the incredibly dark skies make it the perfect backdrop for the ceremonial burning that takes place every year.

Just remember that even when Burning Man isn't in town, the Milky Way offers a nightly light show all summer long. If you're curious about other great places to stargaze, then you should look into the International Dark-Sky Association. They use satellites to measure the world's other light sources. And that's pretty important to a stargazer since any light coming from the surrounding area gets in the way of seeing the stars. You can see a map of light pollution in the US and are full write up on curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS.

CODY GOUGH: We got an email with a question from Nolan who asked: I've heard that redheads take more painkiller than other people to deaden pain. Is this true? Do painkillers have various effects on different people? Honestly, I didn't think this was a thing. But last week, Ashley and I had this super cool opportunity to sit down with Natalia Reagan, a writer and correspondent on Neil deGrasse Tyson StarTalk on Nat Geo and a StarTalk all-star podcast host. We passed along the question and wouldn't you know it, there's something to it. Here's what Natalia had to say.

NATALIA REAGAN: What I discovered was that basically they have redheads supposedly produced more endorphins. It's not they experience more pain, it's the kind of pain that they experience is different than say those with different hair colors. And what I found was that sensitivity to climate, cold or hot, was something that redheads felt more. They were not as sensitive to capsaicin or hot sauce or spice, which I thought was really interesting because you would just seem counterintuitive like you would think that somebody probably didn't encounter it as much might be more sensitive to it because blender food further latitudes usually and spicier closer to the equator.

Well, just this is very interesting because I've had lots of tooth issues, and so is my dad and he's very sensitive. It was just the higher pain that they feel with dental caries and any sort of procedures. This one article said they actually have a greater fear of the dentist. I don't know how true that is. I don't know how many people they interviewed, but I thought that was an interesting little note.

So basically, in terms of-- oh, they're higher pain tolerance, which I thought was really interesting was to electric, like electrocution. I know I guess they did some sort of test on them to see how they-- I know. This sounds like a cruel test actually, now that I think about it, that they actually had a higher tolerance to things like electric pain. So yeah, I know. It's a really interesting-- I think the jury's still out on what are the mechanics of why this is the way it is. But redheads are kind of a strange lot, strange little group of folk.

ASHLEY HAMER: Thanks for your question, Nolan. We talked to Natalia for quite a while about her background in primatology, some really interesting science of genetics, science communication, and a lot more. The uncut conversation is already on our patreon page for our top tier supporters. And we're working on producing a feature-length Curiosity podcast episode for the rest of our patreons. If you're interested in hearing the rest of our conversation, then visit patreon.com/curiosity.com all spelled out. We'll also put a link in the show notes.

CODY GOUGH: Speaking of interviews, we've got a special short bit sweet interview for you right now. Fantasy football season is on its way. But I had the chance to talk to Patrick Chisholm from Quicken Loans, today's sponsor, about the Fantasy Stock League. Here's what he had to say. What is the Fantasy Stock League?

PATRICK CHISHOLM: So the Fantasy Stock League is a game and a tool that can be used to teach you to invest in the stock market. Similar to other fantasy sports like fantasy football, this is something where you are buying with fantasy dollars, fake dollars, and playing on a fantasy stock market, investing in a fantasy stock market, but that mirrors the real stock market.

And so if Facebook shares are $200 a share or whatever they are, then in the Fantasy Stock League, it will also be $200 a share. So you're able to understand how to invest without having at risk taken upon yourself. So it's a great learning place. It's a great way to test the waters of investing and gain some experience and have some fun along the way.

CODY GOUGH: Nice. Why is Quicken Loans doing this?

PATRICK CHISHOLM: So Quicken Loans is doing this. I don't think Quicken Loans is a traditional mortgage company. I think we do care about teaching people about home financing and why that's important. But we're also focused on all pieces of financial life, they're financial literacy. And we believe that investing and investments are a big part of that.

I think I read somewhere that like it's just under half of Americans are actually investing right now, which is bonkers to me, because that should be one of the main ways that people are saving for retirement, their golden years. And so this is a way for us to be able to provide helpful insights to people in all matters of their finances.

CODY GOUGH: Cool. So how does it work? Break it down for me the nuts and bolts.

PATRICK CHISHOLM: Yep. Yep. So when you like sign up for an account, you're giving $10,000 in fantasy bucks. So you're off to a great start. And then you can start buying and selling shares as you would. So let's use the Facebook thing as an example. You can go in and buy shares of Facebook, you're able to see the performance and you can buy or sell as you see fit.

From there, you actually have a leaderboard where you can see and you can compete against friends and say, hey, my portfolio is doing better than yours. And to go one step further than that, you actually the people who do the best in a certain amount of time, they can actually win real money in the real world. There's some definite wins all throughout. Not only the education part, but you can walk away with some real change in your pocket.

CODY GOUGH: Real wins in the real world to invest in real stocks.

PATRICK CHISHOLM: That's right.

CODY GOUGH: I like it.

PATRICK CHISHOLM: I think that, first of all, it's like a stigma with the stock market a little bit that people are a little bit afraid of. I mean, as a millennial, as someone who watched their parents lose all kinds of stuff in the stock market, there's a bit of fear I think. And so we don't want it to be a thing that only pro investors can test out their skills. I mean, they can and that's great. That's fantastic. Let them come and learn and enjoy and have fun. But it's also a place for people who are just getting started with investing to learn and a risk-free environment to gain some skills that they can then take to the real world.

CODY GOUGH: So you don't have to be a current investor to join the Fantasy Stock League?

PATRICK CHISHOLM: You don't. No.

CODY GOUGH: OK. So you're kind of playing make believe with the stock market, but there are real benefits to this type of gamified education right?

PATRICK CHISHOLM: Oh yeah, definitely. One, you're not taking on any of the risk actually in real life. It's not real money you're spending. So that's the big benefit up front. But to the gamified aspect of this where you're competing against others, that competition can be a healthy thing. It can see how others are doing and you can start tweaking your portfolio to improve your investments, improve your opportunities for success. So it's a great place to have some fun, learn a lot, and then after that's done, take those learnings and invest in the real world with real money. And then it's setting them up for success in that.

CODY GOUGH: What do you hope people get out of it, Patrick?

PATRICK CHISHOLM: Do I hope. I think it's important to have financial learning opportunities. I think that's something that I think a lot of people are missing and that they're eager for to make it part of their life. It can be a scary thing. So primarily, I want people to learn something, but I want it to be a type of learning that is fun too. Something that they can come back to and compete and have fun, take something away and then actively use that information in their real life. The going full round, it's learning, having fun with it, and then activating it in the future.

CODY GOUGH: Sure. And if somebody has no idea how the stock market works, whatsoever, they can open this app and is it going to walk them through how to do everything?

PATRICK CHISHOLM: Yes. Yes. So it's very straightforward. When you sign up get an account, $10,000 are automatically in your portfolio. And that tells you where to go to buy your first stock, buy your first share, and then go from there and see how you're doing in the leaderboard. It's fun. We'll be sending weekly updates to make you aware of how you're doing and how your friends are doing and then what you can do to actually improve for your portfolio along the way.

CODY GOUGH: Are you betting your friends?

PATRICK CHISHOLM: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Except one. I'll say there's this one guy who he just set his up and walked away and he's doing way better than me. I mean, that's probably fair but it hurts a little bit.

CODY GOUGH: So one more time, it's called the Fantasy Stock League. We will have a link to directly in the show notes or you can find information on it on the Quicken Loans blog at QuickenLoans.com/Blog. Thanks for joining me, Patrick.

PATRICK CHISHOLM: Hey, thank you for having me.

ASHLEY HAMER: Read about these stories and more today on curiosity.com.

CODY GOUGH: Join us again tomorrow for the curiosity daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.

ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Stay curious.

CODY GOUGH: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.