Learn about common misconceptions around learning that even educators believe; the scientific reason why it feels like you always have more room for dessert; and how science writer Carl Zimmer responded when we asked him “what is life?” 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: Even Educators Believe Common Myths About Learning — https://curiosity.im/2tFh7MR Here's the Scientific Reason You Always Have Room for Dessert — https://curiosity.im/2tDeMCa More from Carl Zimmer: Carl Zimmer’s website — https://carlzimmer.com/ “She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity” — https://amazon.com “Matter,” Zimmer’s weekly science column for The New York Times — http://www.nytimes.com/column/matter “What Is Life,” a podcast series of live conversations between writer Carl Zimmer and eight leading thinkers on the question of what it means to be alive — https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-is-life/id1451004288?mt=2 Follow @CarlZimmer on Twitter — https://twitter.com/carlzimmer Additional publications from Carl Zimmer — https://amazon.com 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 about common misconceptions around learning that even educators believe; the scientific reason why it feels like you always have more room for dessert; and how science writer Carl Zimmer responded when we asked him “what is life?”
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:
More from Carl Zimmer:
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/what-is-life-with-carl-zimmer-why-you-always-have-room-for-dessert-and-learning-myths
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 about common learning myths that even educators believe; and, the scientific reason why it feels like you always have more room for dessert — like pie. You’ll also hear what happened when we asked science writer Carl Zimmer a pretty big question: what is life?
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Even Educators Believe Common Myths About Learning — https://curiosity.im/2tFh7MR (Cody)
We started yesterday’s episode with a little bit of mythbusting, so why not do it again? This time, we’ll talk about misconceptions around learning, and according to one study, even educators believe these 7 myths. As reported by HowStuffWorks, this study looked at results from a true-or-false survey taken by more than 3-thousand respondents. There were three groups of participants who took the survey: one was the general public, one was general educators, and one was people who’d taken college neuroscience courses — what the study called people with “high neuroscience exposure.” And these myths are so pervasive, they were believe by 68 percent of the general public; 56 percent of educators, so yeah, more than half; and 46 percent of the neuroscience-exposed group, which is pretty close to half, too. Here are the seven myths: First, individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style. Sorry, but research has shown those don’t exist. Second, children have learning styles that are dominated by particular sense. Again: no. Third: a common sign of dyslexia is seeing letters backwards. There is actually no evidence of this. Fourth: listening to classical music increases children’s reasoning ability. If ONLY. Talk about an easy way to give your kids an edge, am I right? Fifth: children are less attentive after they have sugary drinks or snacks. Turns out that’s just false assocation. The sixth myth: people can be left-brained or right-brained, and that helps explain learning differences. We’ve done whole podcast episodes on how the left-brain, right-brain thing is just plain wrong. And seventh: we only use 10 percent of our brain. Turns out there are loads of evidence that all the parts of our brain are always active, otherwise if you had brain damage, there’d be a 90 percent chance nothing bad would come from it. The point of this study wasn’t to make you feel dumb, so please don’t, if you didn’t know any of these things. Instead, the researchers are hoping they can help educators set people straight and share more accurate information in the future. We don’t know what we don’t know. So don’t let these myths discourage you; think of it as an opportunity to think smarter, not harder!
Here's the Scientific Reason You Always Have Room for Dessert — https://curiosity.im/2tDeMCa (**Ashley** — last paragraph in the Curiosity.com article says “subjects”)
You’ve always got more room in your brain for knowledge, but you know what else it feels like you always have room for? Dessert. And there’s a specific reason for that. What better way to celebrate PI DAY than by learning why it feels like you can always eat pie? [ad lib]
According to one school of thought, you always have room for dessert because of a thing called sensory-specific satiety. It basically means that you weren't actually full; your senses were just bored. Sensory-specific satiety refers to the idea that the more of one kind of food you eat in a single sitting, the less appealing that food becomes. It might feel like you’re full, but really, it’s just that your brain is kinda bored and doesn’t want to take a twentieth bite of that chicken breast. That’s why when the pie shows up, you’re suddenly ready to eat again. If you’re watching your waistline, don’t worry: there’s a way to get around this. A 2009 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that you can make sensory-specific satiety happen faster if you eat in smaller doses. That can help you feel full before you find yourself over-eating. For example, for this study, people who were told they could as much orange soda as they wanted to, ended up drinking less if they drank in smaller sips. Those smaller sips led to more sensory exposure per ounce, so the participants reached sensory-specific satiety faster. So the next time dinner comes with the promise of pie, don't skip dessert. Just eat in smaller bites.
Carl Zimmer Interview Clip #2 — What Is Life (Both)
CODY: Have you ever wondered about the scientific definition of life? Well, we have. And you’re about to hear from someone else who has, too. Carl Zimmer is an award-winning science writer, and we interviewed him last month at an event for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS.
ASHLEY: On top of all his writing, he has a new podcast literally called “What Is Life.” It’s a series of live conversations between Carl Zimmer and eight leading thinkers on the question of what it means to be alive. Makes him *pretty* qualified to answer this question. So here’s the little mini-philosophical discussion we had when I asked him straight-up, “what is life?”
[CLIP 3:10]
ASHLEY: We’ll put links to Carl Zimmer’s podcast “What Is Life” in today’s show notes, along with links to his book and more. You can also hear our full interview on the latest episode of the Curiosity Podcast, which you can find on our Patreon page at patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com, all spelled out.
CODY: Today’s ad-free episode was brought to you by our Patrons. Special thanks to Michaela Mays, Roger Wright, Paul Larsen, Sergio Moreno (check pronunciation), and Ben Urick for your support on Patreon. We really appreciate it!
ASHLEY: You can support Curiosity Daily, too! Just visit our Patreon page at patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com, all spelled out. No amount is too small, and we’ve got lots of cool bonus rewards to say thanks to our Patrons. One more time, that’s patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com.
CODY: 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!