Learn how to avoid overfeeding your dog; whether wind affects sound; and how Suffrajitsu helped women win the right to vote. Please vote for Curiosity Daily in the 2021 Discover Pods Awards! We're a finalist for Best Technology & Science Podcast. Voting closes today, and it only takes a few seconds. Thank you! https://awards.discoverpods.com/vote/ More from Rodney Habib and Dr. Karen Shaw Becker: Pick up "The Forever Dog: Surprising New Science to Help Your Canine Companion Live Younger, Healthier, and Longer": https://foreverdog.com/about/ Dr. Karen Becker on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doctor.karen.becker Rodney Habib on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rodneyhabib Follow @drkarenbecker on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drkarenbecker/ Follow @RODNEYHABIB on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/RODNEYHABIB/ Follow @drkarenbecker on Twitter: https://twitter.com/drkarenbecker Follow @rodneyhabib on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rodneyhabib Rodney Habib on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXVR-WWoQ6J4kZNmPwdZkNQ/videos Is sound affected by wind? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Oliver in Glen Ellyn, Illinois) Effect of Wind on Sound Transmission. (2018). Sciencing. https://sciencing.com/effect-wind-sound-transmission-23531.html softdb. (2019, May 14). The Effect of Wind and Temperature Gradients on Sound Waves | Soft dB. Soft DB. https://www.softdb.com/effect-of-wind-and-temperature-gradients-on-sound-waves/ More from this author. (2020, April 22). How Does The Speed Of Wind Affect Sound Waves Travelling Through It? Science ABC. https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/does-the-speed-of-wind-affect-how-fast-sound-waves-travel-through-it.html Why Is It So Loud Today? Understanding How Weather Affects Traffic Noise Levels in Your Community. (2015). https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/doing-bus/eng-consultants/cnslt-rsrces/environment/trafficnoiseweather.pdf Wisconsin Department of Transportation. British women like Edith Garrud and Emmeline Pankhurst won the right to vote in part by using martial arts by Steffie Drucker women’s suffrage | Definition, History, Causes, Effects, Leaders, & Facts | Britannica. (2021). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/woman-suffrage Ruz, C. (2015, October 5). “Suffrajitsu”: How the suffragettes fought back using martial arts. BBC News; BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34425615 Keegan, H. (2018, February 6). Everything you need to know about the awesome art of Suffrajitsu. Stylist; The Stylist Group. https://www.stylist.co.uk/visible-women/suffragettes-votes-for-women-suffrajitsu-fighting-ju-jitsu/188142 Tao Tao Holmes. (2015, November 3). The Suffragettes Who Learned Martial Arts to Fight for Votes. Atlas Obscura; Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/suffrajitsu Did You Know? Suffragist vs Suffragette (U.S. National Park Service). (2020). Nps.gov. https://www.nps.gov/articles/suffragistvssuffragette.htm How Mary Poppins Softened the Image of the Suffragette - JSTOR Daily. (2015, October 28). JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/mary-poppins-softened-image-suffragette/ Stevenson, A. (2018, December 11). Will the new Mary Poppins film acknowledge the suffragettes’ success? The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/will-the-new-mary-poppins-film-acknowledge-the-suffragettes-success-106771 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 avoid overfeeding your dog; whether wind affects sound; and how Suffrajitsu helped women win the right to vote.
Please vote for Curiosity Daily in the 2021 Discover Pods Awards! We're a finalist for Best Technology & Science Podcast. Voting closes today, and it only takes a few seconds. Thank you! https://awards.discoverpods.com/vote/
More from Rodney Habib and Dr. Karen Shaw Becker:
Is sound affected by wind? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Oliver in Glen Ellyn, Illinois)
British women like Edith Garrud and Emmeline Pankhurst won the right to vote in part by using martial arts by Steffie Drucker
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/overfeeding-dogs-suffrajitsu-and-does-wind-affect-sound
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 the right and wrong way to feed your dog, with help from two of the world’s most popular and trusted pet-care advocates, Rodney Habib and Dr. Karen Becker. Then, we’ll answer a listener question about whether sound is affected by wind; and you’ll learn how British women won the right to vote with a little help from martial arts.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Dr. Karen Becker and Dr. Rodney Habib - Overfeeding dogs (Cody)
As humans, we know we shouldn't eat too much — but we sometimes do it anyway. The same is true for our pets. Dogs have calorie requirements just like their owners do, but we often feed them way too much — even if it's out of love. Rodney Habib and Dr. Karen Becker are back today to explain why that's a problem when it comes to your dog's lifespan. They're two of the world's most popular and trusted pet-care advocates and they've just come out with a new book: "The Forever Dog: Surprising New Science to Help Your Companion Live Younger, Healthier, and Longer." Here's what I asked them.
[CLIP 4:00]
Yikes. Sounds like it might be time to swap out that neverending bowl of kibble. Again, that was Rodney Habib and Dr. Karen Becker, authors of the new book: "The Forever Dog: Surprising New Science to Help Your Companion Live Younger, Healthier, and Longer." You can find a link to pick it up in the show notes.
LISTENER Q: Is sound affected by wind? By Ashley Hamer (Ashley)
We got a listener question from Oliver in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, who asks, “Is sound affected by wind?” Great question, Oliver!
The answer is yes, sound is absolutely affected by wind! As a refresher, sound is a pressure wave caused by vibration — whether that vibration comes from your vocal cords, a stereo speaker, or your neighbor’s leaf blower. Sound waves need to travel through a medium — some substance that can vibrate along with them to keep them moving through space. Air is the medium we’re most familiar with, but sound can travel through water and solid objects too. Since sound needs a substance to travel through, any change to that substance will change the way the sound moves.
So yes, if the air is moving, it’ll change the way the sound moves. If you yell in the direction of the wind, that sound wave will move faster: specifically, it’ll move at the speed of sound plus the wind’s speed. If you yell in the opposite direction that the wind is blowing, it moves more slowly: at the speed of sound minus the wind’s speed. That also means that someone downwind of you might hear your voice as louder than someone upwind.
But that’s not the only thing that wind does to sound. See, wind closer to the ground moves more slowly than wind higher up in the sky, since there’s a bunch of stuff on the ground to slow it down, like trees and buildings. That gradient between the slow wind and the fast wind will make sound waves change direction. In this scenario, if you yell in the direction of the wind, that sound wave will travel upwards with the slow wind, bounce off of the fast wind, and head back toward the ground. That makes the sound travel farther than it would have otherwise. If you yell in the opposite direction from the wind, that sound wave will travel upwards against the slow wind, then bend into the fast wind like a swimmer being swept up by the current. As a result, it won’t travel as far and it’ll sound quieter.
This means that if you’re downwind of a highway on a windy day, the traffic noise might sound extra noisy. Thanks for your question, Oliver! If you have a question, send it in to curiosity at discovery dot com or leave us a voicemail at 312-596-5208.
British women won the right to vote in part by using martial arts by Steffie Drucker (Cody)
When you picture suffragettes, what comes to mind? Maybe Susan B. Anthony on a dollar coin, or maybe women in Victorian dresses and sashes. You probably don’t think of martial arts masters. But in the UK, that’s exactly who stepped in to fight for women’s right to vote. Forget jiu jitsu — today, we’re talking Suffrajitsu.
The struggle for women’s suffrage, or right to vote, reached a fever pitch in the early 1900s. That was when some suffragettes began resorting to extreme, illegal tactics like bombings and
arson. They were often arrested and imprisoned — and would just keep on protesting in jail with hunger strikes. Police treatment of the protestors became brutal, and marchers began padding their ribs with cotton in case they were thrown to the ground.
So it was only natural that the suffragettes wanted a way to fight back. Enter: Edith Garrud [GARE-id]. For nearly 15 years, this tiny but fierce woman had been running a martial arts studio teaching the Japanese art of jiu jitsu. The style emphasizes using an attacker’s momentum against them, and its name literally translates to “the art of yielding.” It’s the kind of technique that could enable a small woman to take down a much larger policeman.
Garrud taught jiu-jitsu to dozens of members of the Women's Social and Political Union, the militant wing of the British suffrage movement. A group of 30 suffragettes calling themselves “The Bodyguard” used their newfound moves to protect their leader, Emmeline Pankhurst [PANE-kurst]. The press dubbed them “jiujitsuffragettes” or “suffrajitsus.”
In 1913, Pankhurst was released from prison under the Cat and Mouse Act. This law allowed police to release hunger strikers and re-incarcerate them once their health recovered. Police planned to re-capture Pankhurst when she was scheduled to give a speech in Glasgow. She snuck into the theater by acting as a spectator and buying a ticket. Then, when police rushed
the stage, “The Bodyguard” sprang into action and clobbered cops with clubs hidden in their petticoats. Eventually police arrested most of “The Bodyguard” and re-captured Pankhurst. But it certainly wasn’t without a fight.
The story of the “suffrajitsus” fell into obscurity thanks to World War I, but it’s recently been immortalized in the 2015 film “Suffragette” and the graphic novel trilogy “Suffrajitsu” by Tony Wolf. And the story has a happy ending: more than 8 million British women gained the right to vote in 1918, and voting qualifications were finally equalized with men in 1928. And at least some of it was thanks to the art of suffrajitsu.
RECAP/PREVIEW
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 how animals are “shapeshifting” in response to a warmer climate;
The surprising benefits of “emotional hangovers”;
Why some cultures have developed whistled versions of their languages; How to keep your jack-o-lantern from spoiling;
The strange afterlife of Albert Einstein’s brain;
And more! Okay, so now, let’s recap what we learned today.
1. ASHLEY: Just because an animal looks like it’s starving doesn’t mean it actually is. Obviously it’s important for dogs to eat, but if you keep food out all the time and your dog is eating all day, then that leads to constant glucose and insulin spikes — and that’s bad.
Dogs don’t have a carb requirement, either, so giving them too much sugar can even cause issues related to weight gain, diabetes, and even cancer. So remember: as fun as it is to feed your dog, you can have too much of a good thing.
2. CODY: Sound moves faster and farther when it’s moving with the wind, and it moves a shorter distance more slowly when it’s moving against the wind. That means that if you’re downwind of a loud highway or a migrating flock of geese, you’ll probably hear those things as louder than you would if you were upwind.
3. ASHLEY: During the fight for women’s right to vote in the UK, some suffragettes turned to jiu-jitsu to protect themselves and battle it out with cops during protests. The media called these women “jiujitsuffragettes” or “suffrajitsus.” They were taught by a woman named Edith Garrud, who had more than a decade of training in the Japanese martial art, and put it to good use in the suffragette movement.
● Aside: “Suffragist” and “suffragette” are not interchangeable, and we used “suffragette” for a reason. “Suffragist” refers to anyone advocating for suffrage for any group, not just women. A British reporter coined the term “suffragette” in 1906, adding the diminutive “-ette” to belittle the cause. Some British women embraced the title of “suffragette” as a way of reclaiming it, while it remained offensive in the U.S. We used “suffragette” here since we were talking about British suffrage.
● Aside 2: By the way, did you know that Mary Poppins was an anti-suffrage movie? Yeah! You're supposed to get the sense that the Banks home is in disarray because the mother is never home because she's out fighting for suffrage. Plus the character herself comes off as daffy and flighty. At the end of the movie, she gives the children her suffrage sash, seemingly abandoning the cause altogether to be a better mother/housewife.
[ad lib optional]
ASHLEY: The writer for today’s suffrajitsu story was Steffie Drucker.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer, who was also a writer and 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!