Learn about why you overspend at the grocery store, and how to avoid it; how tattoos may toughen up your immune system; and how adding physical activity to the classroom could help kids learn more effectively. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Why Most Grocery Shoppers Buy More Than They Mean To — https://curiosity.im/2Ntmiu4 Tattoos May Toughen Up Your Immune System — https://curiosity.im/32qSti5 You Can Learn Skills Faster With One 15-Minute Workout — https://curiosity.im/32xSAIA What Wind Chill Really Means, Learning Skills Faster with a Workout, and the Hypatia Stone [Podcast] — https://curiositydaily.com/what-wind-chill-really-means-learning-skills-faste/ Additional sources: Physical activity in lessons improves students' attainment | EurekaAlert! — https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-10/ucl-pai101419.php Physically active lessons in schools and their impact on physical activity, educational, health and cognition outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis | British Journal of Sports Medicine — https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2019/10/07/bjsports-2018-100502 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 about why you overspend at the grocery store, and how to avoid it; how tattoos may toughen up your immune system; and how adding physical activity to the classroom could help kids learn more effectively.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Additional sources:
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-stop-overspending-on-groceries-tattoos-may-toughen-up-your-immune-system-and-how-physical-activity-boosts-kids-learning
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 about why you overspend at the grocery store, and how to avoid it; how tattoos may toughen up your immune system; and, how adding physical activity to the classroom could help kids learn more effectively.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Why Most Grocery Shoppers Buy More Than They Mean To — https://curiosity.im/2Ntmiu4 (Cody)
Have you ever spent more money than you meant to at the grocery store? Well you’re not alone: in fact, according to one expert, 60 percent of what's in the average shopper’s basket isn't what they intended to buy. 60 percent! So we’re gonna talk about why this happens, and then give you some tricks to help you save yourself so you don’t shop til your wallet drops.
Long story short, grocery store is set up specifically to lure you into buying more than you meant to. The produce and bakery sections are usually the first sections you’ll hit up, and they tend to be lit theatrically so everything tends to look better than it ever will when you get home. You might also notice that the most popular products are in the middle of the aisle, and that’s to get around something called the Boomerang Effect. That’s when you go buy something you want and then just leave the same way you came. Putting the most popular items in the middle of the aisle means that on the way to finding what you actually want, you walk by more other stuff, which means you’re tempted to buy more other stuff. It’s one of the same reasons milk is usually stored in the back of the store, and on the way there, kid-friendly snacks are stored lower on the shelves, so toddlers will easily spot them. All this adds up to the fact that roughly 60 percent or more of you buy at the supermarket wasn’t on your list. But aside from the setup of the store, there’s a psychological factor that comes into play if you spend too long in the store. Researchers at Bangor University looked at brain scans of supermarket shoppers and found that customers start making emotional shopping decisions after only 23 minutes in the store. After 40 minutes, the brain gets tired and effectively shuts down — as in, it stops forming rational thoughts. SO. Here’s your big takeaway to stop a supermarket sweep of your savings account: Bring a list, stick to it, and make your shopping trip as speedy as possible.
Tattoos May Toughen Up Your Immune System — https://curiosity.im/32qSti5 (11/7 DOC) (Ashley)
We’ve got some good news for the 30 percent of Americans who have at least one tattoo: Tattoos might actually be good for you, and toughen up your immune system in the long run. While a single tattoo won't exactly cure the common cold, science shows that people with multiple tattoos have an enhanced immune response — at least, to new tattoos.
Think of tattooing as an exercise for your immune cells. Inking triggers alarm bells for your immune system, which registers the ink as an intruder. So your system rallies an army of white blood cells, or macrophages, to eat up the foreign ink cells. But, because tattoo pigment can't be broken down as easily as a virus or bacterium, the ink particles hang around inside the macrophages, who eventually die and leave the ink where it was. In the meantime, a secondary line of defence triggers the creation of specific immunoglobulin proteins that circulate in the bloodstream to protect against the same types of invaders.
Well, scientists can actually detect those immunoglobulins, to measure the adaptive capacity of a person's immune system. And for a 2016 study, researcher Christopher Lynn and his colleagues did just that. They tested people's saliva and found that people who had more tattoo experience saw higher levels of immunoglobulin after the session, which suggested they also had a stronger immune response.
This was all good news, but Lynn wanted to test out a larger sample to see if he could get the same results. So he set out for the Samoan Islands, because tattoos are an integral element of Samoan culture. Think Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
When he got to the islands, Lynn tested saliva samples and health information from 25 participants, including both Samoans and tourists. His pre-print study reported that tattooing seemed to cause a “priming effect” that prepared the body to respond to future tattoos. He also found that people with more tattoo experience produced more salivary immunoglobulin, just like in his previous study.
This new study hasn’t yet been accepted to a peer-reviewed journal, so it doesn’t seem there’s enough reason to go under the needle to boost your immunity just yet. But it’s potentially good news for tattoo lovers. Fortunately, in the meantime, there are plenty of other ways to strengthen your immune system, like sticking to a healthy diet and getting enough sleep.
[KIWICO]
CODY: Today’s episode is sponsored by KiwiCo. KiwiCo is a super-fun subscription box that your kids will LOVE. Seriously — the holidays are coming up, and at least one of my nieces is definitely getting KiwiCo for a gift. You know how kids light up when they have a project to put together? Picture that, but your kids are also learning something, AND you don’t even have to go to the store to pick it up every month. KiwiCo just drops off a super-cool hands-on project for your kids to look forward to every month. I brought a KiwiCo project to a friend’s house months ago and their kids have been thrilled with every project they’ve gotten since.
ASHLEY: Like Cody said, KiwiCo (KEY-WEE-COH) creates super cool hands-on projects for kids to make learning about STEAM fun! STEAM as in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. They’re designed by experts and tested by kids. No need to research or worry about gathering all the supplies! Each box comes with all the supplies you need for that month’s project, with detailed, easy-to-follow instructions written for kids. You’ll also get an educational magazine to learn even more about that crate’s theme!
CODY: KiwiCo is a convenient, affordable way to encourage your children to be anything they want to be. There’s no commitment, you can cancel anytime. Monthly options start at $16.95/month, including shipping. And we have a special offer just for Curiosity Daily listeners: go to kiwico.com/CURIOSITY to get YOUR FIRST MONTH FREE.
ASHLEY: Every day counts when it comes to making a difference so don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity!
CODY: Again, go to kiwico.com slash CURIOSITY and get YOUR FIRST MONTH FREE.
ASHLEY: That’s kiwico.com/CURIOSITY.
Mae Rice Script - Add physical activity for better classroom lessons https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sHS6uEk8kZtRuCPnZxDcM5WY6jk85Zmxn5rl9T0XVBQ/edit (Cody)
On this podcast back in February, we told you about the fact that a 15-minute workout can help adults master a technical task. You can find a link to that episode and our article on the research in today’s show notes. But I bring it up because now, a new meta-study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine has found something similar for kids: as in, they learn significantly more when they’re active. Most of the time, students have to sit still at school, but movement makes the material more memorable and boosts focus, or “time-on-task,” as scientists call it.
Researchers figured this out by reviewing 42 pre-existing educational studies on “physically active lessons,” or lessons that involve some basic movement. That movement doesn’t have to be high-intensity: In one study, students just made gestures to indicate if factoids sounded true or false. In others, they did jumping jacks, or ran in place to simulate traveling the world.
Most of the studies were from the US, but overall, the researchers reviewed data from more than 12,000 students all over the world. Physical activity had a significant positive impact on learning across age groups and nationalities. Active students paid closer attention and recalled the material better on quizzes at the end of class. They also retained what they learned better in the long term, although that effect was smaller than the effect on what they learned in the lessons themselves.
Active students were also, obviously, more active. That’s important. Kids around the world are too sedentary: the majority of young people don’t get the World Health Organization recommendation of an hour of moderate to vigorous exercise each day. So the study is promising news for educators and public health officials: physically active lessons gets kids learning and moving simultaneously. Two birds, one jumping jack!
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Summary: We've talked before about how adults can [learn things faster with one workout](https://curiosity.com/topics/you-can-learn-skills-faster-with-one-15-minute-workout-curiosity), but a new study suggests that incorporating exercise into the classroom can help kids learn, too. A meta-analysis of 42 studies around the world found that incorporating physical activity into a lesson, like performing a movement to give an answer or jumping on the spot some number of times to answer a math question, had a large, significant effect on educational outcomes during the lesson.
Sources: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-10/ucl-pai101419.php
Study: https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2019/10/07/bjsports-2018-100502
CODY: Okay, so what got us excited about today’s episode?
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Today’s stories were written by Rachel Bertsche Levine and Andrea Michelson, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity.com.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough, Sonja Hodgen, and Mae Rice. This podcast is produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!