In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Should You or Shouldn't You Kill Spiders in Your Home? Everyday Foods and Drinks with Medical Origins How to Motivate Yourself to Exercise When You're Depressed 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.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
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.
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/when-to-kill-spiders-how-to-exercise-when-depressed-and-strange-food-origins
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: HI, we've got three stories from Curiosity.com 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 about whether you should kill spiders in your home, everyday food and drinks with weird medical origins, and how to motivate yourself to exercise when you're depressed.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfies some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: OK, Cody, you find a spider in your house, what do you do?
CODY GOUGH: I kill it before my wife sees it.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh wow. I never kill spiders.
CODY GOUGH: Really?
ASHLEY HAMER: Never.
CODY GOUGH: Do you, like, put it on your finger and then walk it outside.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, I don't put it on my finger. It would crawl over my arm that way. I usually get a little cup. And I get a little piece of paper. And I trap it. And I put it outside. It turns out that science says that I'm in the right here.
CODY GOUGH: Really?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, you need spiders in your home.
CODY GOUGH: Well, yeah, because they eat other bugs, right.
ASHLEY HAMER: They do. And they're actually not dangerous. They're kind of good for your-- most of them are good for your home. Very few of the 400,000 known spider species are capable of harming humans. Even spider bites are actually extremely rare. A lot of the times when people think that they have spider bites, they actually have bites from a different insect.
CODY GOUGH: Really?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. North Carolina State University entomologist Matt Burton conducted a survey of 50 North Carolina homes to see which spiders are living under our roofs. It shouldn't surprise you that every house he surveyed was home to spiders. The most common ones were something called cobweb spiders, which are those ones which they have, like, really big butts. And they make cobwebs.
CODY GOUGH: Sure.
ASHLEY HAMER: Unsurprisingly. And cellar spiders, which, if you've listened to past podcasts, you probably know that those are also called Daddy longlegs. So that's totally normal. You have spiders in your house, they're not going to hurt you. And they share the space with you all the time.
They hide in dark places because that's where they can catch prey. And they actually eat all the other pests in your home, like roaches, earwigs, and insects that carry disease, like mosquitoes and flies. And sometimes, they end up killing other spiders too. Actually, the cellar spider is known to kill venomous black widow spiders. So yeah, you want him around or her.
But if you simply can't stand seeing a spider inside, do what I do. Try to trap it under a glass. You know, you don't have to get your hands on it. And gently release it outside. But you don't even have to do that. If it's in the middle of your bathtub, you can probably just brush it toward a dark corner and let it live its life out there. So there's one exception to this rule.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah, when do you kill spiders?
ASHLEY HAMER: According to spider expert, Christopher Buttle, of McGill University, non-regional spiders in your home should be killed. When would you get a non-regional spider in your home? Most likely when you're bringing home fruit or vegetables from the store and a spider ends up hitching a ride.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, interesting.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, because that produce is probably from somewhere else in the world. And that spider will do some damage if it gets out into the wild.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah, how about travel too, if, like, you come back from a trip?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, true. If you find a spider in your suitcase or something, kill that thing. Yeah, for sure.
CODY GOUGH: When you get back from summer vacation, make sure there's no spiders in there.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yep.
CODY GOUGH: Actually, do you like s'mores?
ASHLEY HAMER: I love s'mores.
CODY GOUGH: Do you know that Graham crackers used to be really super bland?
ASHLEY HAMER: I did know that. And it's a crazy story about that, right.
CODY GOUGH: Yes. Today, on Curiosity.com, we wrote about everyday foods and drinks with strange medical origins. And Graham crackers happened to be one of those foods.
ASHLEY HAMER: Do tell.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah, this was an insane story. It actually has something to do with religion. There's a Presbyterian minister named Sylvester Graham. And he developed Graham crackers to combat immorality. Like morality, not immortality, immorality. He created the cracker in 1829 to help people follow the Graham diet. And that was a bland food regimen that supposedly stopped people from having, let's just say, impure thoughts.
ASHLEY HAMER: OK, so we're not talking about, like, sugar, and cinnamon, and all the goodness that you get in Graham crackers today.
CODY GOUGH: No, it was just a boring, generic cracker with, basically, no flavor.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. This diet was actually one of the first vegetarian diets in the country. And the fads popularity kind of went away after Graham's death. And eventually, Nabisco and some other companies added honey, and cinnamon, and sugar, and all those things to make it nice. But yeah, Graham crackers were originally gross.
Today, you can read more about all of the foods that we wrote about. But we also get into Salisbury steak, which began as supposedly a really easily digested food that became a sensation after 1888.
ASHLEY HAMER: Amazing.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. And soft drinks. 7up, Dr. Pepper, and Coca-Cola all used to be marketed as having medical benefits.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. And also 7up used to have lithium.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah, 7up was my favorite, probably, of all the stories. 7up was originally called Bib Label liquidated lemom-lime soda.
ASHLEY HAMER: Amazing.
CODY GOUGH: And the lithium wasn't removed until 1950. It was legitimately a mood stabilizing drink because lithium citrate actually is a compound used to treat psychiatric conditions. So it actually did have medicinal benefits originally. And when they decided to change the name to 7up, the guy who changed the name to 7up died and never told anybody why he called it 7up. So there are actually a lot of rumors out there, but no one knows why it's called 7up.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. So people think it refers to the pH in the drink. Some people refer to the ingredients. But no one knows why it's called 7up.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's amazing.
CODY GOUGH: Crazy story, isn't it? Yeah, you can find them all today on Curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS.
ASHLEY HAMER: So in the news lately, it's been kind of tough, right. Like, there have been a few suicides. And a lot of people have been talking about what to do if you're depressed. The fact is depression is a mental disorder. But it also has a really big effect on the body. It causes insomnia, fatigue. It can weaken your immune system. And that's why exercise is actually a proven method for treating anxiety and depression.
But, of course, there's a vicious cycle there, right. Because when you're depressed, you don't want to do anything, especially not exercise. So how do you do that? How do you fight that? Well, today, on Curiosity.com, we offer a few tips on how to exercise when you're depressed.
Number one, don't wait for motivation. This is true of motivation across the board, really. If you're just waiting for motivation to come, it's not going to come. So if you ever find yourself saying, I'll run later when I feel like it, then just do it. Maybe try thinking about how you'll feel after you've done that run. You'll feel all accomplished and energized. And maybe, that can help motivate you to get out the door and go running.
Also, make it social. Depression can lead to loneliness. If you call up a friend to go work out together, that can hit two birds with one stone. You can get your social time in and also get some exercise. And you'll feel better for it. The other thing is that if you have a friend waiting on you to do that morning workout or after work workout, you're more likely to do it because it's not just about you. Someone else is waiting on you.
Also, you might have a pretty narrow idea of what exercise is. I mean, maybe when you think about exercise, you think about high school gym, right, which was awful for everyone. But there are a lot of different ways to exercise. We just recently went over a big list of them recommended by a Harvard doctor. Things like walking, swimming, Tai Chi. You could even throw a Frisbee around or go for a bike ride.
Just find an activity that you think is fun and that you look forward to. And try not to think of it as exercise. Think of it as a fun activity. We've got a bunch more tips on Curiosity.com if you need a little bit of extra help getting out the door.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah, it's hard enough to start exercising when you're not depressed.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, it is.
CODY GOUGH: Hopefully, people can find some help in this, whether you are battling anxiety or not. And you can also read more about everything else we wrote about today, plus a lot more, by the way, on Curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS. Join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity Daily and learning something new in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Stay curious.
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