Learn what Chutes and Ladders can tell us about the way culture can influence art; how to survive the aftermath of a nuclear explosion, according to science; and how being kind to yourself can make you physically healthier. 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: Chutes and Ladders Began as a Game to Teach Morality 2,000 Years Ago — https://curiosity.im/2MKZVly How to Survive a Nuclear Explosion, According to Science — https://curiosity.im/2K2R78v Being Kind to Yourself Has Real Health Benefits — https://curiosity.im/2RhvstX 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! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom 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 what Chutes and Ladders can tell us about the way culture can influence art; how to survive the aftermath of a nuclear explosion, according to science; and how being kind to yourself can make you physically healthier.
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! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
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/nuclear-survival-guide-physical-health-benefits-of-being-kind-to-yourself-snakes-and-ladders
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 what Chutes and Ladders can tell us about the way culture can influence art; how to survive a nuclear explosion, according to science; and how being kind to yourself can make you physically healthier.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Chutes and Ladders Began as a Game to Teach Morality 2,000 Years Ago — https://curiosity.im/2MKZVly (from Tuesday 7/2) (Cody)
Wanna know just how much our culture can influence the way we interpret art? Well then, look no further than Chutes and Ladders. Yes, I’m talking about that board game you played as a kid that’s based on sheer luck, because it turns out that this super-simple setup started out as a game to teach morality nearly 2-thousand years ago. So let’s climb up the ladder of curiosity and slide down into some ancient history. As a quick refresher, the game’s rules are really simple: you spin a spinner or roll a die, land on a number, and move your piece that many spaces. If you end your turn with your piece on a ladder, then you “climb up” the ladder and move forward several spaces. And if you land on a chute, then you “slide down” and lose several spaces. Chutes and Ladders is originally based on a game called Snakes and Ladders, which dates back to ancient India in the 2nd century B.C. And this game was a tool to teach children about traditional Jain and Hindu philosophies (although Islamic, Buddhist, and other versions of the game also existed). The game especially focused on teaching karma and kama, or destiny and desire. And the gameplay mechanics themselves taught the concept of destiny or fate with the random, luck-based spinner or die roll you used to move. The snakes and ladders conveyed desire, and ancient iterations featured fewer ladders than snakes, as a reminder that a path of virtue is harder to follow than a path of sin. The game’s underlying message inspired a version in Victorian England in 1892, which replaced Indian virtues and vices like generosity and lust with Victorian, Anglican, and Protestant doctrines of morality. You could climb up to squares for fulfillment, grace, and success using ladders of things like industry, obedience, and punctuality. And vices like gambling, indulgence, and disobedience would lead to squares for things like disgrace, illness, and poverty. The number of ladders also increased to equal the number of snakes, to represent the cultural ideal that for every sin a person commits, there exists another chance at redemption. And when Milton Bradley introduced the game to the U.S. in 1943, it brought with it that same level of metaphor, but this time it focused on child-friendly good deeds like mowing the lawn, and bad deeds like eating too many cookies. More than 2 millennia after its invention, the game is continuing to evolve as an educational tool, with new versions being designed to educate people about things like climate change or how to prevent encephalitis. Who knew that children’s game requiring zero skill could actually teach us so many lessons? [ad lib about board games]
How to Survive a Nuclear Explosion, According to Science — https://curiosity.im/2K2R78v (Ashley)
Do you know how to survive a nuclear explosion? We don’t want to be alarmist, but we found some pretty interesting recent research into what you should do in the event of a nuclear explosion. So listen up if you’re the kind of person who likes to plan for a worst-case scenario. As in, THE. Worst case scenario. In 2014, an atmospheric scientist named Michael Dillon crunched some numbers to figure out a person’s best course of action in case of a nuclear attack — one that’s about the same size of the ones that hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Assuming you survive the actual explosion, the next step is to deal with the deadly radioactive fallout, which is where Dillon’s recommendation comes in. He says that if your house isn't very protective and you know you can get to a quality shelter in five minutes, run to that shelter. If the nearest shelter is 15 minutes away, then stay put for a half-hour at most before you run to that shelter. That's because your radiation dose is a balance of how much you get in an improper shelter and how much you'll get when you're outside reaching a better one. According to Dillon's calculations, a five-minute run is worth reaching a nearby shelter. But if it's further away, waiting pays off, since environmental radiation intensity decreases over time. Dillon estimates that these guidelines could save between 10 and a hundred-thousand lives, but you should know that not everyone agrees with this advice; critics say that telling everyone to leave at once can cause gridlock while people are out on the streets, which could leave them exposed to radiation longer. That’s part of the reason why the U.S. government recommends you stay put for at least 12 hours after the blast. Still, it’s important to know about the tradeoff between how much radiation you get in a weak shelter and how much you’d get by running to a better one, and that knowledge could indeed save some lives. We’re going to stay optimistic, though, and just hope that nobody ever has to actually put this knowledge into action.
[ARM & HAMMER]
CODY: Today’s episode is sponsored by Arm & Hammer, and their new Cloud Control Cat Litter.
ASHLEY: Hey Cody. Do you know what I love about my cat?
ASHLEY: As great as that is, though, one thing I don’t love doing is cleaning up Aglet’s litter box. That’s why Arm & Hammer created new Cloud Control litter. There's no cloud of nasties when I scoop ... it is 100% dust-free, free of heavy perfumes, and helps reduce airborne dander from scooping. That way, what happens in the litter box, STAYS in the litter box.
CODY: New Cloud Control Cat Litter by Arm & Hammer. More Power to You.
Being Kind to Yourself Has Real Health Benefits — https://curiosity.im/2RhvstX (Cody)
According to new research, being kind to yourself can have real health benefits. As in, researchers from the Universities of Exeter and Oxford believe being kind to yourself may trigger a response that could lower your risk of disease. To help you take the first step towards a happier, healthier life, let’s first talk about the difference between self-criticism and self-compassion. Researchers see these as opposite responses to difficult experiences. Let’s pretend we have two people, Jack and Jill. Jack is self-critical, so he’s both harsh and judgmental about his ability to cope when he’s stressed. He usually feels pretty isolated, and he leans towards being in fight-or-flight mode and feels constantly threatened in difficult times. On the other hand, Jill is self-compassionate. She’s nonjudgmental about her responses in tough situations, and she understands that hard times are part of being human. When things get rough, she can call on self-reassurance and soothing strategies to make herself feel better. Jill's way of coping certainly sounds better than Jack's, but researchers say that Jill's patterns of thinking also make her more likely to be physically and emotionally healthy than Jack. As in, Jill's heart might function better and her body might be more relaxed. In a recent experiment, researchers had 135 volunteers listen to an 11-minute recording that would condition them to think in a self-compassionate or in a self-critical way. And those recordings had a physiological effect: they altered the participants’ heart rates. Immediately after listening, the heart rates of students who’d listened to the self-compassion recordings had slowed down by two to three beats per minute, on average, compared to those who listened to the self-critical recordings. It seemed the self-compassion exercises activated the body's parasympathetic nervous system — the "rest-and-digest" antidote to the body's fight-or-flight response that helps to slow your breathing and heart rate. Past studies have linked increases in parasympathetic activity like this with reduced cortisol levels, better immune system functioning, effective emotion regulation, and physical and psychological health, including cardiovascular health. So being kind to yourself can literally be good for your heart. This study was conducted with mostly healthy people, so people with depression or other types of mental illness might not see the same effects from these exercises. But while we wait for more research, there's no harm in practicing self-kindness, and directing warmth and compassionate energy toward your loved ones and yourself. Your heart might even thank you for it.
ASHLEY: You can read about today’s stories and more on curiosity-dot-com!
CODY: Today’s episode was brought to you in part by our Patrons. Special thanks to Roger Wright, Jairus Durnett, Steve Guy, Bob Buckley, Durant, and Angie for supporting our show. You can also support Curiosity Daily at patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com, all spelled out.
ASHLEY: Join us again tomorrow for the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m [NAME] and I’m [NAME]. Stay curious!