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: A New Study Shows the Scary Similarities Between Junk Food and Drugs These Are the 5 Keys to Success in Business, According to Billionaire Jeff Bezos These 7 Traits Make You Irresistible to Mosquitoes If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please considersupporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! Want more Bezos knowledge? Check out the book "Think Like Jeff Bezos: 23 Life Changing Lessons from Jeff Bezos on Life, People, Business, Technology, and Leadership: Making of an E-Commerce Business Mammoth from Yesterday for Tomorrow." Get the audiobook for free with a trial of Audible. We handpick reading recommendations we think you may like. If you choose to make a purchase through that link, Curiosity will get a share of the sale. Learn about these topics and more onCuriosity.com, and download our5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable ourAlexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
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:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron!
Want more Bezos knowledge? Check out the book "Think Like Jeff Bezos: 23 Life Changing Lessons from Jeff Bezos on Life, People, Business, Technology, and Leadership: Making of an E-Commerce Business Mammoth from Yesterday for Tomorrow." Get the audiobook for free with a trial of Audible. We handpick reading recommendations we think you may like. If you choose to make a purchase through that link, Curiosity will get a share of the sale.
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/mosquitoes-favorite-blood-types-how-junk-food-resembles-drugs-and-jeff-bezos-keys-to-business-success
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 what blood types and traits make you irresistible to mosquitoes, new research into how junk food is similar to drugs, and business tips for success from Amazon's Jeff Bezos.
CODY GOUGH: Well, it satisfies some curiosity. Ashley, what's your junk food vice?
ASHLEY HAMER: I love Nutella, I really love sweets.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, really?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: I like peanut butter cups.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, I love those too.
CODY GOUGH: Peanut butter cups are good. Do you ever find yourself just like, a bag of chips in front of you and you're just-- can't stop eating them.
ASHLEY HAMER: I've definitely had that experience.
CODY GOUGH: Well, you're not alone. And if you're listening to this and you've ever gotten upset with yourself for overindulging in junk food, then don't be too hard on yourself because guess what? A new study has found scary similarities between junk food and drugs. Like cocaine-like drugs.
ASHLEY HAMER: Dun, dun, dun, dun.
CODY GOUGH: [LAUGHS] Specifically, it turns out that processed foods can hit your system with the speed and intensity of a controlled substance. And this is the first scientific study to support the idea that processed foods are more addictive than naturally occurring foods. Pretty important stuff considering there are projections that obesity could affect 85% of US adults by 2030.
In this study, researchers from the University of Michigan psychology department and the New York Obesity Research Center had participants look at a series of side by side photos of food, like pizza next to a cucumber, and identify which of the two foods they were more likely to experience problems with. Problems meaning signs of addiction, like having a hard time cutting down on consumption or losing control and eating too much of it.
The foods fell into different categories, so they were a mix of high or low in fat or in refined sugar or carbohydrates. Overall, the foods that participants found most addictive were all highly processed, meaning they have been altered to increase the level of fat and refined carbohydrates with a high glycemic load. That's a measure of how much the food will raise your blood glucose levels after you eat it. A high glycemic load usually signifies low quality carbohydrates.
Everyone struggled with the same core snacks. Chocolate, pizza, ice cream, cookies, cheeseburgers, and fries. And addictive drugs share some of the same properties. They are consumed in high doses, they're absorbed rapidly, and they've been processed. These foods are modified with extra fat or refined carbs, and stripped of fiber, protein, and water to suit our cravings and make them addictive, just like how Coca leaves aren't as addictive as their processed counterpart, cocaine.
And rats have been shown to get addicted to junk food too, even seeking out highly processed snacks, even if it means suffering some kind of punishment, like an electric shock. The researchers suggest that their research could lead to new public policy initiatives. If junk food really does hit the body like a drug, then should we treat it like one? That's above our pay grade, but it'd be interesting to see what happens next.
ASHLEY HAMER: I really liked this research because they specified what they meant by processed. I feel like a lot of times people talk about processed food as just like a general catch all term, and I don't really know what that means.
CODY GOUGH: Right.
ASHLEY HAMER: But this was cool. It's like, oh, it's added fat or added carbohydrates and refined to make it absorb really quickly.
CODY GOUGH: And make it delicious.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: But not so delicious for your health.
ASHLEY HAMER: Not so delicious for your health.
[LAUGHTER]
Last month, Bloomberg reported that Amazon founder and Washington Post owner, Jeff Bezos, is worth more than $150 billion. We would like to have that much money and I'm sure you would too. So today we wrote about five of Bezos' tips for business success, on the off chance it'll help one of us make $150 billion.
I mean, I'd be happy with one or two billion, but anyway.
CODY GOUGH: I'd be happy with 0.2 billion.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, definitely. So tip number one, do not settle during the hiring process. Bezos has said that he'd rather interview 50 people and not hire anyone than hire the wrong person. Tip number two is to be stubborn in vision, but flexible in approach. Keep the bigger picture in mind and give yourself some wiggle room when it comes to finding solutions to get you there. Number three, be customer-obsessed, not colleague distracted.
Customers will make you successful, not internal matters. So make sure the focus is there. Number four, treat all good data-backed ideas fairly. An intern can have just as good an idea as a senior executive, as long as it's backed by good data. Experience does count for something, so leave the intuition-based ideas to the higher ups. And finally, don't chase the quick bucks. Focus on the longer payoff at the end of the road, and in 20 or 30 years, maybe you'll have a few billion bucks too.
We'll put a link in today's show notes to some more Bezos knowledge in an audio book you can get for free with a trial of Audible.
CODY GOUGH: Today's episode is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
ASHLEY HAMER: Everyone knows about the risks of driving drunk. You could get in a crash, people could get hurt or killed. But let's take a moment to look at some surprising statistics.
CODY GOUGH: Almost 29 people in the United States die every day in alcohol impaired vehicle crashes. That's one person every 50 minutes. Even though drunk driving fatalities have fallen by a third in the last three decades, drunk driving crashes still claim more than 10,000 lives each year.
ASHLEY HAMER: Many people are unaware that driving while high can be just as dangerous. In 2015, 42% of drivers killed in crashes tested positive for drugs. Not so harmless after all, is it? And get this, from 2007 to 2015, marijuana use among drivers killed in crashes doubled. The truth is driving while high is deadly, so stop kidding yourself.
If you're impaired from alcohol or drugs, don't get behind the wheel. If you feel different, you drive different. Drive high, get a DUI.
CODY GOUGH: So drive sober or get pulled over. Ashley, do you get a lot of mosquito bites?
ASHLEY HAMER: I'm actually pretty lucky in that, I don't get a ton of them. A lot of times, like when I go camping and stuff, it's usually everybody else.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah, I don't attract them too terribly much. But you know people, right?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: That friend who always insists that the mosquitoes love them and you look at them after any outing and it's bad news.
ASHLEY HAMER: Just covered in welts.
CODY GOUGH: So there actually is a reason for that. We got a question from our listener, Erin, who wrote to us at podcast @ Curiosity.com. Her question was, quote, "Every summer I'm covered in bites. I heard a theory that mosquitoes are attracted to people of a certain blood type. Looking for certain proteins maybe? So I'm curious, do mosquitoes prefer one blood type over another?" Unquote. Great question, Erin.
Today we've got a whole deep dive on our site into this subject. It turns out there are a lot of factors behind what mosquitoes like to bite. And you can control some of them. First, here are the things you've got to live with.
We'll start with your blood type, which you can't change. Mosquitoes love type O blood, and they're the least attracted to type A blood. Your genes also determine whether you're a secreter. That's a term for people whose blood type antigens seep into their saliva and sweat and stuff. About 80% of people are secretes, so you are lucky if you're in that 20% that mosquitoes don't love as much.
Skin bacteria is one other factor, but that's pretty nuanced. The diversity in population of the bacteria that lives on your skin can have a big effect on mosquitoes. According to a 2011 study, if you have lots of one type of bacteria, then mosquitoes will be all over you. But if you've got the same amount of bacteria spread across many different species, then they'll be less attracted to you.
So diverse microbiomes for the win. And one less nuanced one, mosquitoes love carbon dioxide. So you can't do much about that unless you can, you know, stop breathing. Here's the stuff you can actually control.
First, drinking alcohol makes you more attractive to mosquitoes. If you're cracking open a six pack at a barbecue, then you can expect a little bit of extra attention. Mosquitoes also love lactic acid, body odor, and chemicals found in human sweat, so exercise could make you a lightning rod for mosquito bites.
And finally, mosquitoes actually prefer you when you're wearing bold and dark colors, like blue, black, or red. That's especially true if you're the only one in the group dressed that way. Thanks again for your question, Erin, and we wish you a bite-free summer.
ASHLEY HAMER: Read about these stories and more today on Curiosity.com.
CODY GOUGH: Join us again tomorrow for The Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Stay curious.
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