Author Priya Parker explains how to fix the biggest mistakes you’re making in your virtual gatherings. Plus: learn about how language can affect the amount of pain a bilingual person experiences; and why the world’s largest waterfall probably isn’t what you think it is.
Author Priya Parker explains how to fix the biggest mistakes you’re making in your virtual gatherings. Plus: learn about how language can affect the amount of pain a bilingual person experiences; and why the world’s largest waterfall probably isn’t what you think it is.
Additional resources from Priya Parker:
Bilinguals feel more pain in the language of their stronger cultural identity by Kelsey Donk
The World's Largest Waterfall Isn't What You'd Think by Mike Epifani
Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/the-big-mistakes-we-make-in-virtual-gatherings-w-priya-parker
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, author Priya Parker is back to help you fix the biggest mistakes you’re making in your virtual gatherings. Then, you’ll learn about how language can affect the amount of pain a bilingual person experiences; and why the world’s largest waterfall probably isn’t what you think it is.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
I don't know about you, but I'm over Zoom calls. I'm in Zoom meetings for work all day, then I'm in Zoom meetings with friends and family at night. It's exhausting. Luckily, today's guest has some tips on how to make your virtual gatherings a little more enjoyable. Priya Parker is a conflict resolution facilitator who has helped create transformative gatherings — ranging from meetings on race relations on college campuses to peace processes in the Arab world. In her book "The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters," she shares her secrets on how to inject more meaning into our get-togethers. We asked her: what are the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to Zoom calls?
[CLIP 3:11]
[ad lib on the aww moment it ends on] That was Priya Parker, a conflict resolution facilitator and author of the book "The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters." You can find a link to pick that up, along with a link to her New York Times Podcast "Together Apart," in the show notes.
Does a bee sting hurt more in Spanish or in English? That’s not a trick question: the answer is it depends. According to a new study from the University of Miami, bilingual people feel more pain in the language of their strongest cultural identity. So if you speak Spanish at home and are speaking Spanish when a bee stings you, you’ll probably feel more pain than if you were chatting with a friend in English.
It’s weird, but here’s how we know it’s true. Researchers invited 80 people from around Miami, Florida to visit the lab. All of the participants spoke both Spanish and English, and they all identified as bicultural. The researchers wanted to figure out whether the psychological differences between Spanish and English would have an impact on the participants’ physical and emotional experiences.
Each participant came to the lab twice, and the experimenter either spoke English or Spanish to guide them through their visit. During each session, the experimenter showed the participant images that were symbolic of that language’s culture, then touched a hot node to the participants’ inner forearm. During the study, participants rated the pain they experienced in either Spanish or English, and had monitors measuring their heart rate and other signs of stress.
The researchers thought the participants would report more pain in Spanish, just because of the way the language approaches descriptions of pain. But that’s not what they found. Instead, people felt more pain when they spoke the language of their stronger cultural identity. The bilinguals who felt most connected to their US-American culture reported more pain when they were speaking English and bilinguals who felt more connected to Hispanic culture said they felt more pain when they were speaking Spanish.
And this wasn’t just a matter of how well they could describe the pain in each language. Their own bodies showed more signs of pain, too. They were more likely to have sweaty palms and an increased heart rate when they were speaking the language they felt closest to.
What the study shows is that not all bilinguals are created equal. Individual differences in cultural identity can influence a person’s experience in the world — not just the language they speak.
What's the largest waterfall in the world? Well, if you’re talking by flow rate, it’s Inga Falls in the Congo. Tallest? That’s Angel Falls in Venezuela. The widest is Khone [cone] Falls in Laos. But if you want to know the very largest waterfall in the world, you'll have to look beneath the ocean. That's where you'll find the Denmark Strait Cataract, an underwater waterfall with measurements that make the others look laughable.
If you’re wondering how a waterfall can exist underwater, here’s how. Underwater waterfalls are known as cascades — or cataracts if they’re really big — and they form where cold and warm water meet. The molecules in cold water don't move around much, so they stay close together and make the water denser than warm water. That makes cold water sink straight down through warm water, which creates a steady and consistent flow.
The Denmark Strait Cataract sits between Greenland and Iceland in a spot that creates the perfect conditions for an underwater waterfall. The water coming from the Greenland Sea to the north is Arctic cold, literally. When it enters the warmer water in the Irminger [ER-ming-er] Sea to the south, it drops more than 11,000 feet or 3500 meters straight down, which makes it three and a half times taller than the tallest terrestrial waterfall. The water flows at 175 million cubic feet or 5 million cubic meters per second, which means it’s got more than 175 times the amount of water than its heftiest rival on the surface. Sure, it is slower, since cold water falls through air much faster than it can sink through warm water. And it is, again, underwater. But does that make it any less of a waterfall?
The Denmark Strait Cataract and other cataracts like it aren't just natural oddities. They're part of a delicate ecosystem, and many are essential — for everyone from commercial fishing crews to the deep-sea creatures that depend on them for their constant flow of nutrients. But climate change may be coming for it. The cataract’s flow is very reliant on temperature, and there’s evidence that climate change is negatively affecting other underwater currents. One more reason to protect our environment — even if it’s not a waterfall you’re likely to see on a sightseeing trip any time soon. Unless you’re, you know… a fish.
Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Today’s stories were written by Kelsey Donk and Mike Epifani, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough and Sonja Hodgen. Today’s episode was produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!