Curiosity Daily

Giant Cheese Race, “Morning You,” Consciousness-Altering Eye Contact

Episode Summary

Learn about a race against a wheel of cheese; your personality throughout the day; and effects of extensive eye contact.

Episode Notes

Learn about a race against a wheel of cheese; your personality throughout the day; and effects of extensive eye contact.

The stories in this episode originally aired July 6, 2018 https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/you-re-a-different-person-in-the-morning-eye-conta

Every Year, People in this English Town Risk Life and Limb to Chase a Wheel of Cheese by Annie Hartman

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer — for free! 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.

Episode Transcription

CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. I’m Cody Gough.

ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about a bizarre tradition that involves racing against a giant wheel of cheese; how you’re a totally different person in the morning than you are late at night; and how you can alter your consciousness using nothing more than eye contact. We originally ran these stories on July 6, 2018, and they’re so good, we remastered them just for you.

CODY: Plus, stick around for a brand-new recap segment at the end of today’s episode to hear our fresh takes on all of today’s stories. But right now? Let’s satisfy some curiosity.

[WHOOSH SFX]

ASHLEY: And before we re-live these stories in all their glory, I need to give a little context to this first one. We’ve talked about a lot of strange traditions and weird history on Curiosity Daily. And this is no exception. Every year, there’s an event where people chase a giant wheel of cheese down a hill that’s so steep, people walk away with several injuries and broken bones. The event we’re about to talk about was canceled in 2020 and in 2021 due to COVID, but a one-man variation of it did take place in May 2020. We’ll talk about that at the end of today’s episode, but we thought this context would help you enjoy this story better. Have fun!

RECAP

Hey, we’re back in 2022! Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today.

  1. ASHLEY: The Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling contest is a 200-year-old tradition in southwest England. Nobody really knows why it started, but it involved a bunch of people running down a ridiculously steep hill chasing an 8-pound wheel of cheese, rolling at up to 70 miles per hour.
    1. CODY: Like Ashley said earlier, the event was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. BUT the event's "Master of Cheese" Jem Wakeman kept the tradition alive with his own one-man cheese rolling competition in May 2020. Wakeman rolled the cheese down an empty hill shortly after sunrise at about 5.30 in the morning. The race traditionally begins around noon, but it’s probably good he got an early start, because local police actually posted extra patrols that day to make sure people didn’t show up to participate unofficially (you know, because of COVID). A spokesperson for the police said that, quote: "the event usually attracts up to 8,000 participants and spectators,” unquote. 
  2. CODY: You’re a different person in the morning than you are at night. An analysis of 800 million tweets showed that in the morning, people are focused on achievement and power, and show signs of analytical thinking. And from late at night to the very early hours of the morning, tweets take a darker turn, with words suggesting anxiety, sadness, and other negative emotions. Death related words were most common around 3 a.m. Researchers blame this on your circadian rhythm, and it’s a good thing to keep in mind before the next time you hit that tweet button.
    1. CODY: I like that I said I’m a “commute tweeter,” and I don’t commute anymore, so yeah
  3. ASHLEY: You can induce an altered state of consciousness by staring into a stranger’s eyes for 10 minutes straight in a dimly lit room. In a small study of 20 young adults who did this, they said they experienced colors and sounds and even time differently. And the majority said they’d seen deformed facial traits, hints of their own face in the other person’s face, and even a monster. This might have been thanks to neural adaptation, which is when neurons decrease or stop their response to unchanging stimulation. But more importantly, PLEASE let us know if you try this. You can always find us on Twitter.

[ad lib optional] 

CODY: Today’s writers were Annie Hartman, Ashley Hamer, and Joanie Faletto. 

ASHLEY: Curiosity Daily is distributed by Discovery.

CODY: [AD LIB SOMETHING FUNNY] join us again next time to learn something new in just a few minutes.

ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!