In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com — and learn about the science of stretching from Get-Fit Guy of Quick and Dirty Tips — to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: The 3 Things to Do to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence, According to a Neuroscientist You Probably Believe These 5 Myths About Tourette Syndrome Plus, learn more about fitness from Quick and Dirty Tips. Then check out the rest of their podcasts: Everyday Einstein Grammar Girl Nutrition Diva Get-It-Done Guy Get-Fit Guy Money Girl Mighty Mommy Clever Cookstr Unknown History Notes from yesterday’s story about 10th-century Vikings and the Muslim world: The Strangely Revealing Debate Over Viking Couture | The Atlantic The Rise and Fall of the Viking “Allah” Textile | Hyperallergic 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! 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 — and learn about the science of stretching from Get-Fit Guy of Quick and Dirty Tips — to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Plus, learn more about fitness from Quick and Dirty Tips. Then check out the rest of their podcasts:
Notes from yesterday’s story about 10th-century Vikings and the Muslim world:
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!
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/science-of-stretching-w-get-fit-guy-tourette-syndrome-myths-and-3-ways-to-boost-emotional-intelligence
CODY GOUGH: Hey, we've got two stories from curiosity.com, plus a special guest 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 three things you can do to boost your emotional intelligence, according to a neuroscientist. And we'll bust some common myths you might believe about Tourette syndrome.
CODY GOUGH: Plus, we'll give an update on yesterday a story about Vikings. And you'll learn about the science of stretching with some help from Get-Fit Guy.
ASHLEY HAMER: Let's satisfy some curiosity. Cody, do you know anybody who's just like super smart but doesn't quite come off as a functional sympathetic well-adjusted human adult? Please don't say me.
CODY GOUGH: No.
[LAUGHTER]
My head didn't go there at all, but I definitely know people like that.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, me, too.
CODY GOUGH: I think we all do.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, scientists say your emotional intelligence is your ability to identify and manage your emotions and the emotions of others. And today, we're giving you three things you can do to boost your emotional intelligence. Why is this important though? Well, in 2016, Fast Company called emotional intelligence one of the fastest growing job skills. And that hiring managers value it more than your IQ. And if all you know is happy sad and angry, then buckle up.
According to University of California Berkeley researchers, there are 27 distinct emotions. Neuroscientist and psychologist Lisa Feldman Barrett laid out three steps to boosting your emotional intelligence in her book, How Emotions are Made-- The Secret Life of the Brain. And we've summed them up for you.
One, recognize a wide array of emotions. Again, if all you see is me happy and me sad, then all you'll ever feel is happiness or sadness. Learn about all 27 emotions, and you'll begin exploring the granularity of the fields. Two, learn new words for specific emotions. Barrett writes, quote, "Words seed your concepts, concepts drive your predictions, predictions regulate your body budget, and your body budget determines how you feel," unquote, and also writes that people who exhibit higher emotional granularity go to the doctor and use medication less often and spend less time in the hospital for illness.
And third, but not last, create new emotions. If you don't have a word for a certain feeling you experience, naming it can make it real, meaning more emotional granularity for you. You can read more about all of these tips in our full write-up today on curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS.
CODY GOUGH: We're no strangers to fitness on this show, especially Ashley. But today, we've got a special treat for you. Our friends at Quick and Dirty Tips have a whole podcast called Get-Fit Guy that gives you the fitness tools to rise above your former self. And Get-Fit Guy himself has some really cool tips for you to stay safe with a little science of stretching. Here's Get-Fit Guy, Brock Armstrong, with more.
BROCK ARMSTRONG: Hey, thanks guys. I'm happy to be here on your podcast to tell you and your listeners about a few problems with a thing called static stretching before a workout. Back when I was in grade school wearing my split shorts and my knee-high sports socks and participating in the mandatory track events, well, stretching was a ritual that we all performed before the main event. Back then, we were all programmed to believe that we absolutely had to stretch our muscles before exerting them if we wanted to avoid things like the dreaded groin pull.
Well, times have changed and luckily, so of gym uniforms. These days, there are many sports science studies that caution us away from static stretching before workouts. And according to the research, not only does our performance suffer with things like less speed and less strength and less power, but it also doesn't even protect us against injury, not even the dreaded groin pull. Now, the problem is that static stretching is just not a good way to warm up your body.
Now, what is a good warm-up? Well, a warm-up is exactly what it sounds like. It's a routine that warms up your body, literally and figuratively. A warm-up should activate a thing called the synovial fluid or the lubricant in your joints. It should raise your heart rate and raise your body temperature as well. And this prepares your body for the workout, both physically and mentally.
Now, why doesn't static stretching work? Well, muscles are made up of bundles and bundles of tiny fibers. Now, the theory was that stretch before engaging in exercise would make these muscle fibers more pliable and therefore, less likely to get torn or strained. But in studies, they have compared the rates of injury and even muscle soreness among people who stretched before exercise and those who didn't. And researchers found little benefit, if any, in stretching. In fact, they found that stretch a cold and tight muscle that has not already been thoroughly warmed up could actually increase the likelihood of injury.
So if you hear someone at the gym saying that they're stretching so they don't get injured, you should let them know that the scientific evidence has shown that static stretching doesn't reduce your risk of injury. And sadly, stretching before or after exercise does not even protect you from muscle soreness. In fact, one of the most popular studies on this topic actually concluded, and I quote, "static stretching should be avoided before a short endurance bout."
Now, what this all comes down to is the fact that if you make your muscles loose and your tendons too stretchy before you ask them to perform, well, these soft tissues are less able to produce the quick and powerful responses that you desire. This means that if you're about to lift weights or run very fast or in fact, to do anything that requires power and explosiveness, well, doing static style stretching is going to limit your performance to a certain extent.
ASHLEY HAMER: Thanks for the info Get-Fit Guy. You can find a link to Get-Fit Guy in today's show notes or visit quickanddirtytips.com to find lots of great podcasts, including Get-Fit Guy, Everyday Einstein, Grammar Girl, and more.
CODY GOUGH: Today's episode is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Everyone knows about the risks of driving drunk. If you get in a crash, people could get hurt or killed.
ASHLEY HAMER: But let's take a moment to look at some surprising statistics. Almost 29 people in the United States die every day in alcohol-impaired vehicle crashes. That's one person every 50 minutes.
CODY GOUGH: 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. And 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?
ASHLEY HAMER: 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.
CODY GOUGH: If you feel different, you drive different. Drive high and you get a DUI.
ASHLEY HAMER: Drive sober or get pulled over. Our last story today is about some common misconceptions about Tourette syndrome. Let's just say TV shows and movies aren't always striving for accuracy when they're portraying the condition. The first myth is that everyone with Tourette's syndrome curses uncontrollably. In reality, only one in 10 people with the condition experience this.
CODY GOUGH: Next, there's the myth that Tourette syndrome is a mental illness. It's actually a neurological disorder, which puts it in the same campus epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis.
ASHLEY HAMER: Another myth is that people with Tourette syndrome can control it if they want to. The condition is a type of tic disorder, which means it leads people to twitch, perform certain movements, or make sounds suddenly and repeatedly. Tics might seem to appear out of nowhere, but people can often feel them coming on. And that means they can suppress them but only for a little while. Just like you can only suppress scratching an itch for a little while, there comes a time when people with tics really need to give in to them.
Medication and behavioral therapy can help reduce the number of tics a person experiences. But Tourette syndrome never goes away. You can't just grow out of it.
CODY GOUGH: One thing a person with Tourette syndrome can do, though, is lead a normal life. Tourette syndrome happens on a spectrum, so the most severe cases can be debilitating. But many people with it lead normal even supremely successful lives.
ASHLEY HAMER: Want to know a few names? Try Dan Aykroyd, David Beckham, and Howie Mandel. They all live or have lived with the condition. There's a lot to learn about conditions like Tourette syndrome, but we hope we dispelled some common misconceptions.
CODY GOUGH: Before we wrap up, I want to mention a quick note on one of yesterday's stories. We talked about how Arabic writing had been found on Viking burial clothing. And that story was also widely reported on when it happened with coverage from the New York Times, The Guardian, the BBC, and some other pretty major publishers. The story made sense to us because there is abundant and uncontested evidence that there was contact between 10th century Vikings and the Islamic world. But the particular textile fragment mentioned in the story should not be counted among that evidence.
The viral story of Arabic writing on Viking burial clothes was actually debunked by Stephanie Mulder, an associate professor of Islamic arts and architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. According to her, the style of [INAUDIBLE] writing found on the Viking burial clothes didn't become common until the 15th century, about 500 years after the clothing was created.
Now, we intended for the main takeaway of this story to be that archaeology can help us see history in a new light. And again, there's mounting evidence that Vikings were in touch with the Muslim world, which might change the way you think about the world 1,000 years ago. So that lesson still stands. But we work really hard to be as scientifically accurate as possible. And we wanted to make sure we were completely transparent about that factual error we made in the story. The devil's in the details after all.
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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