Learn how to get better at talking to strangers; and how Red Dead Redemption 2 turns gamers into naturalists. Trivia too! Additional resources from Joe Keohane: Pick up "The Power Of Strangers" at your local bookstore: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984855770?aff=penguinrandom Website: https://joekeohane.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeKeohane Red Dead Redemption 2 accidentally turns gamers into amateur naturalists without them even knowing by Cameron Duke Parker, R. (2018, October 30). “Red Dead Redemption 2” Breaks Records With $725 Million Opening Weekend. The Hollywood Reporter; The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/red-dead-redemption-2-breaks-records-725-million-opening-weekend-1156235/ Crowley, E. J., Silk, M. J., & Crowley, S. L. (2021). The educational value of virtual ecologies in Red Dead Redemption 2. People and Nature. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10242 Red Dead Redemption 2 teaches players about wildlife. (2021). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-07/uoe-rdr070721.php Episodes referenced in the Curiosity Challenge trivia game: Brain-computer interface: https://www.curiositydaily.com/why-song-lyrics-are-getting-simpler/ Dinosaur age: https://www.curiositydaily.com/weird-dreams-might-be-a-brain-feature-not-a-bug/ Megalodon: https://www.curiositydaily.com/why-megalodon-was-so-huge-misophonia-in-the-brain-trivia/ Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. 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.
Learn how to get better at talking to strangers; and how Red Dead Redemption 2 turns gamers into naturalists. Trivia too!
Additional resources from Joe Keohane:
Red Dead Redemption 2 accidentally turns gamers into amateur naturalists without them even knowing by Cameron Duke
Episodes referenced in the Curiosity Challenge trivia game:
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. 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.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-to-talk-to-strangers-red-dead-redemption-2-naturalists-july-curiosity-challenge
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about how to get better at talking to strangers, with help from author Joe Keohane. You’ll also learn about how the hit video game Red Dead Redemption 2 is accidentally turning gamers into naturalists; and we’ll test your podcast knowledge with this month’s Curiosity Challenge trivia game.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Yesterday, Joe Keohane told us about the huge benefits of talking to strangers. Today he's back to tell us the best way to do it in the first place. Joe Keohane is a veteran journalist and the author of the new book "The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World." I/Ashley just moved to a new city, and asked him what I/she should do when she's out in public if she wants to talk to people and hopefully make friends. Here's what he said.
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Relinquishing control of your interactions isn't easy, but it sounds like it's worth it. Again, that was Joe Keohane, a veteran journalist and the author of the new book "The Power of Strangers: The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World." You can find a link to pick it up in the show notes.
Games that are made to teach tend to be niche and don’t sell well. Instead, most big-budget developers make games to entertain. But that doesn’t mean they can’t teach us things along the way. A recent study found that players of one mega-popular video game came away knowing more about wildlife and conservation without even trying.
The game I’m talking about is Red Dead Redemption 2, a game that broke records for pre-orders and first-day sales when it came out in 2018. While most games depict fantasy settings, Red Dead Redemption 2 goes out of its way to do the opposite. Its massive open world depicts realistic ecosystems that are more than just background decoration. These ecosystems contain species the player can hunt, study, and otherwise interact with.
Researchers at the University of Exeter set out to understand whether the game’s realism had any educational potential. To do this, they recruited nearly 600 self-identified gamers to take a quiz where they had to identify species found in the game. Participants looked at real photographs of 15 different species and had to correctly identify the species’ name from an assortment of choices. Some of the species were common, like the white-tailed deer and the blue jay. But others were less common, like the roseate [ROW-zee-utt] spoonbill, which looks like a flamingo with, well, a spoon for a bill.
On average, Red Dead Redemption players were able to correctly identify 10 of the 15 species. That’s an average of three more than gamers who had not played the game. And the gamers who had logged the most hours in the game did the best on the quiz.
The researchers argue that while sitting at home and playing video games might seem like the opposite of learning about nature, games that strive for realism might be useful educational tools. In Red Dead Redemption 2, opossums play dead and eagles hunt snakes, just like their real-life counterparts. The game even warns players about the plight of endangered species when they do something that harms one — and if they keep doing it, the species goes extinct. Gamers can’t help but learn while they play.
Sure, playing a game might never take the place of an actual biology class. But when it comes to learning about wildlife and conservation, games that strive for scientific realism might be an effective and untapped resource.
It's time for the Curiosity Challenge! Every month, I call up a listener and put them to the test by asking them three questions about stories we ran on Curiosity Daily in the previous month. For this Curiosity Challenge, I talked to Elizabeth in Wisconsin. Have a listen!
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Yet another perfect score - SO impressive. How did YOU do? If you’d like to play next month, OR if you have a question you’d like us to answer on the show, shoot us an email at curiosity at discovery dot com, or leave us a voicemail at 312-596-5208!
CODY: Before we recap what we learned today, here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll hear next week on Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Next week, you’ll learn about whether being too hygienic is making kids sick;
Why mating is sometimes the enemy of evolution;
The first ever detection of a black hole gobbling up a neutron star;
Why it’s easier to predict other people’s behavior than your own;
And more! Okay, so now, let’s recap what we learned today.
[ad lib optional]
ASHLEY: The writer for today’s last story was Cameron Duke.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer who was also an audio editor on today’s episode.
ASHLEY: Our producer and audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: Have a great weekend! [AD LIB SOMETHING FUNNY] Then, join us again Monday to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!