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: SKILLSHARE SPECIAL OFFER: Two months of unlimited access to more than 20 thousand classes for just 99 cents The Strange Reasons for Pilot Voice, Newscaster Voice, and Poet Voice Why Does Food That Already Doesn't Contain Gluten Say Gluten-Free? The FBI's Most Viewed File Is Not About What You'd Expect For gluten-free dishes that taste like the real deal, check out "The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook: Revolutionary Techniques. Groundbreaking Recipes" by America's Test Kitchen. Want more mysteries? Check out "The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files" by paranormal investigator Joe Nickell.
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:
For gluten-free dishes that taste like the real deal, check out "The How Can It Be Gluten Free Cookbook: Revolutionary Techniques. Groundbreaking Recipes" by America's Test Kitchen. Want more mysteries? Check out "The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files" by paranormal investigator Joe Nickell.
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/gluten-free-labels-the-fbis-most-viewed-file-and-the-strange-reasons-for-pilot-voice-newscaster-voice-and-poet-voice
[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 why food that already doesn't have any gluten is still labeled gluten-free, the strange reasons for pilot voice, newscaster voice, and poet voice, and the FBI's most viewed file. It's not about what you'd expect.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity. Do you have, like, an announcer voice you used for this podcast, Ashley?
ASHLEY HAMER: I think I do. I think I talk a little higher on the-- I don't know. I do know that once a listener complains about vocal fry, then you've really made it as a female podcaster.
CODY GOUGH: What is vocal fry?
ASHLEY HAMER: It's this, it's when you talk like this.
CODY GOUGH: Has anybody complained about that?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yep.
CODY GOUGH: Oh no. Wait, really?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh yeah.
CODY GOUGH: I don't remember that.
ASHLEY HAMER: No, we only got one. And that was the day where I was like, all right, I've made it.
CODY GOUGH: Good. Well, can you do poetry voice because I can't.
ASHLEY HAMER: It's when you talk like this and keep everything pretty monotone. The waves, the sea, I think that's what it's like. That's my impression.
CODY GOUGH: Maybe, you've been to a poetry reading where all the poets speak using that same slow cadence. And we all know that people have been on a plane and your captain starts speaking in the same voice. You've always heard Captain Zeus. Roger that. Us too, right?
So today, we're going to dive into how and why certain jobs became associated with certain cadences or tones of voice. We'll start with pilots because that's the most fun. Does the name Chuck Yeager ring a bell?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, he's the one who broke the sound barrier.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. And he was one of the air force's premier test pilots. Anyway, his pilot talking cadence is the one other pilots emulate.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. So hero worship, right. Well, the late great author, Tom Wolfe, pointed out in "The Right Stuff" that the voice has another benefit. And that it sounds cool and composed. And it has a calming effect, which is not a bad idea for when you're flying.
ASHLEY HAMER: It is very calming.
CODY GOUGH: So that's where that came from. Next up is newscasters. All across the US, TV news anchors speak with the exact same non-accent accent, which is a sort of highly enunciated pronunciation that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.
Just like the pilot voice, this one is both inspired by the greats that came before and pronounced just so for a good reason. The dialect is actually known as broadcasting English. Never truncates fishing to fishing. Always pronounces every air. And can't quite be placed.
I also kind of local TV news writing because it is so heavy on puns. Black Friday is coming soon. But in this local maximum security prison, you'd be hard-pressed to find a doorbuster. I wrote that one.
ASHLEY HAMER: You sound a little bit more like an infomercial.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, this is why I'm not a TV news anchor.
ASHLEY HAMER: You got to work on your broadcasting English.
CODY GOUGH: I've got a face for radio. Anyway, the final voice is poet voice. New research published in April actually looked into the origins of poet voice by comparing recordings of historical and contemporary poets with recordings of people speaking more conversationally.
It turns out that poet voice is strongly marked by slow pitch acceleration. Meaning that while the pitch might go up or down, it does so really slowly at a rolling pace. And since more natural speech patterns use pitch for emphasis, that pump and break style of speaking tends to strike us as unemotional, and detached, and almost even unnatural. That might help it serve a social purpose and make you focus more on the words than the delivery. So there you go, there's one story from Curiosity.com that had no trouble finding a voice.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh boy.
CODY GOUGH: And you might not think that I have any of this at all. But our sponsor certainly does have a lot of classes. Our sponsor has classes.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cody's talking about Skillshare, an online learning platform with more than 20,000 classes in business, marketing, design, technology, and more.
CODY GOUGH: All of Skillshare's classes are taught by real experts in their field or public motivational speakers. And they teach lots of different skills like productivity, animation, finance, photography, mobile development.
ASHLEY HAMER: More than 20,000 classes.
CODY GOUGH: Right. I have been really curious about online security lately. So I took a class called ethical password hacking and protecting. Not only did it learn a lot of really cool stuff in just a few hours, but the course was taught by a software engineer who is the CEO of a software firm, and who also happens to be a quantum physicist.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah, this is not just some random dude. And you can skip around the Skillshare courses if there's a section you're already familiar with or you're not interested in. So I saved myself about 15 minutes by skipping the section on WhatsApp hacking because I don't really use WhatsApp. So it's really easy to jump around or pick up where you left off. It's not like you have to set aside an hour or two to take a class in one sitting.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join the millions of students already learning on Skillshare with a special offer just for Curiosity podcast listeners. Get two months of Skillshare for just $0.99. To sign up, visit Skillshare.com/curious.
CODY GOUGH: Again, that's Skillshare.com/curious for two months of unlimited access to more than 20,000 classes for just $0.99. We know you love learning, so just start your two month trial today.
ASHLEY HAMER: One more time, that's Skillshare.com/curious. Cody, do you eat gluten-free potatoes?
CODY GOUGH: That's a really good question. I don't think so.
ASHLEY HAMER: You absolutely do because potatoes don't contain gluten.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, it's a question.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. So why are some potatoes labeled gluten-free? You might think it's a cheap marketing tactic, but that gluten-free label is actually a lot more necessary than you might think. Today, you'll learn why gluten-free labels appear on foods that are obviously already gluten-free.
So gluten is a family of proteins found in grains like wheat, rye, and barley. It forms kind of a gluey matrix in bread dough that traps carbon dioxide bubbles to help bread bake to a fluffy, chewy consistency. Importantly, it's also used as a stabilizer in some packaged foods.
When people with celiac disease eat gluten, their bodies attack the lining of the small intestine and prevent it from absorbing nutrients. That can cause a lot of other medical problems from vitamin and mineral deficiencies to serious conditions like type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis or MS. That's why the gluten-free label is important.
According to the FDA, it helps people with celiac and others who are sensitive to gluten. Though, that second one is a controversial diagnosis that may be due to other factors. So why put a gluten-free label on something with no native gluten? Cross-contamination. Any food produced on the same equipment as food that contains gluten can pick up some of that.
For example, Lay's potato chips should be naturally gluten-free. But the Frito-lay website warns that they don't test their products for gluten content. So their chips may have come into contact with other things that contain gluten prior to manufacturing. And contamination can happen to things from any manufacturer from salami to salad dressings to hard candies, the list goes on.
Of course, some food producers will slap a gluten-free label on a tomato just as a marketing tactic. But there's a group of people it really does help. Read more about the FDA's guidelines today on Curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS.
CODY GOUGH: And the Curiosity app, I should also mention, is gluten-free.
ASHLEY HAMER: It is.
CODY GOUGH: Actually, if you could read any file from the FBI, what would it be?
ASHLEY HAMER: Probably something about aliens.
CODY GOUGH: Well, today, you wrote about the most viewed file in the FBI's online database. And guess what it is? It's a two paragraph note from 1950 called, the Hottel Memo. It was written by Guy Hottel, who at that time, was the head of the FBI's Washington field office. And his report details an account, supposedly given by an Air Force investigator, who says he recovered a trio of flying saucers.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes, I was right.
CODY GOUGH: With an alien crew and everything. The saucers were circular. And the aliens had, quote, "bodies of human shape, but only three feet tall. Dressed in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots." unquote.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow.
CODY GOUGH: The FBI posted about it on their official website and said the memo was an unconfirmed report that the FBI never even followed up on. So according to them, the memo does not prove the existence of UFOs. But I mean, I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens. You can read more about this report and so much more today 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.