Learn why puppies really do love your “who’s a good boy?” voice. You’ll also learn about small changes you can make in your daily routine to help us clean up the world’s oceans, with help from special guest Will McCallum. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about how puppies really do love your “who’s a good boy?” voice: https://curiosity.im/2ZOHn5c Additional resources from Will McCallum: “How to Give Up Plastic: A Guide to Changing the World, One Plastic Bottle at a Time” on Amazon — https://amazon.com Follow Will McCallum @artofactivism on Twitter — https://twitter.com/artofactivism Penguin Random House bio — https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2189047/will-mccallum Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn why puppies really do love your “who’s a good boy?” voice. You’ll also learn about small changes you can make in your daily routine to help us clean up the world’s oceans, with help from special guest Will McCallum.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about how puppies really do love your “who’s a good boy?” voice: https://curiosity.im/2ZOHn5c
Additional resources from Will McCallum:
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-to-save-the-world-from-plastic-w-will-mccallum-and-your-puppies-love-baby-talk
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn why puppies really do love your “who’s a good boy?” voice. You’ll also learn about small changes you can make in your daily routine to help clean up the world’s oceans, with help from special guest Will McCallum.
CODY: Let’s clean up some curiosity.
Puppies Really Do Love Your "Who's a Good Boy?" Voice — https://curiosity.im/2ZOHn5c (from Saturday 9/28) (Cody)
Most people’s voices go up a few octaves when they’re talking to dogs. But does your dog really like baby-talk? Research has confirmed the answer as a resounding yes, but only if your dog is still a puppy.
In a January 2017 study published in the journal Proceedings of Royal Society B, researchers found that puppies and babies responded similarly to high-pitched voices. They also noted that "adult women show similar brain activation patterns" when presented with a picture of their dog and a picture of their own children.
With this in mind, the researchers had 30 female participants view photos of dogs and say common phrases like "Who's a good boy?" The volunteers then read the same phrases of praise to an adult human. Unsurprisingly, the women used baby talk when looking at the puppy images and a normal voice when speaking to the human. Next, the researchers played their baby talk recordings to dogs of varying ages. As expected, the puppies showed a strong response, but when the researchers played the women's normal voice, the puppies didn't give nearly the same response. But here's the kicker: The adult dogs couldn't care less either way.
Why don't adult dogs care about your cutesy voice? As bioacoustician and co-author of the study Nicolas Mathevon explained to Smithsonian, that older dogs might just be choosier, and they react only to their owner’s familiar voice rather than that of a random volunteer.
While the researchers aren't sure of the significance, if any, of these findings yet, they note in the study that pet owners use baby talk for all dogs, no matter their age. This is a "spontaneous attempt to get the attention of non-verbal, rather than just juvenile listeners." After all, your older dog is still a good boy and won’t care so long as it’s your voice.
Interview Clip 1 - Trash everywhere and how it gets there [4:12] (2 segments) (Ashley)
I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that our oceans are getting dirtier. The good news is that there are changes you can make in your daily routine to help us get rid of disposable plastic and clean up the world’s oceans. And our guest today has some ideas for where to start. Will McCallum is the Head of Oceans at Greenpeace UK and author of the new book “How to Give Up Plastic: A Guide to Changing the World, One Plastic Bottle at a Time.” And before we get into tips to help you have more Sustainable September, let’s quantify EXACTLY how big this plastic problem is.
[CLIP 0:41]
Okay, so plastic is everywhere. But Cody and I live in Chicago, which is pretty far from the nearest ocean. How does my trash get into the Atlantic or the Pacific?
[CLIP 1:41]
[INSERT AS QUESTION / NO SWOOP] CODY: But what about recycling efforts? What if I throw my plastic in the blue bin? Doesn’t that fix everything?
[CLIP 1:38]
It would be so nice if we could just point to recycling as a fix-all, but like Will said, one single company produces more than 120 BILLION plastic bottles a year. If everyone with access to clean water got their hands on a reusable bottle, we could go a long way in cleaning up our oceans. And tomorrow we’ll get into even more tips, or you can just pick up Will McCallum’s book, “How to Give Up Plastic: A Guide to Changing the World, One Plastic Bottle at a Time.” We’ll put a link to that and more in today’s show notes.
ASHLEY: And now, let’s recap what we learned today. Today we learned that puppies love your “who’s a good boy?” voice, but adult dogs could probably take or leave it.
CODY: And that we’ve found plastic in the deepest depths of the ocean and in the most remote regions of Antarctica. But you can do your part to clean up our oceans by buying fewer plastic bottles.
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!