Curiosity Daily

Your Biggest Regret, Tall Mountain Myths, The Deep Web

Episode Summary

Learn about why your biggest regret is the thing you didn’t do; the tallest mountains on Earth; and the Deep Web. The stories in this episode originally aired May 29, 2018 “The Deep Web, Biggest Regrets, and a Mount Everest Misconception” https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/the-deep-web-biggest-regrets-and-a-mount-everest-misconception   Additional information about the Dark Web: The Tor Project | Privacy & Freedom Online. (2021). Torproject.org. https://www.torproject.org/download/  The Guardian SecureDrop. (2019). Theguardian.com. https://www.theguardian.com/securedrop  The brighter side of darknet drug dealing | Dr James Martin | TEDxMelbourne https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv-E7naLBq8  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.

Episode Notes

Learn about why your biggest regret is the thing you didn’t do; the tallest mountains on Earth; and the Deep Web.

The stories in this episode originally aired May 29, 2018 “The Deep Web, Biggest Regrets, and a Mount Everest Misconception” https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/the-deep-web-biggest-regrets-and-a-mount-everest-misconception

Additional information about the Dark Web:

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/your-biggest-regret-tall-mountain-myths-the-deep-web

Episode Transcription

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 why your biggest regret is probably the thing you didn’t do; why the tallest mountain on Earth might not be what you think it is; and why search engines can only find about 1 percent of the entire internet. We originally ran these stories on May 29, 2018, and they’re so good, we remastered them just for you.

CODY: Plus, stick around for a brand-new recap segment at the end of today’s episode to hear our fresh takes on all of today’s stories — including some exciting brand-new information about... THE DARK WEB. But right now? Let’s satisfy some curiosity.

RECAP

Hey, we’re back in 2021! Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today.

  1. ASHLEY: Your biggest regret in life might be the thing you didn’t do, as opposed to mistakes you made. You do regret thing you DID do in the short-term — what researchers call “active mistakes.” But usually you forget about those things later. Regret about our ideal selves are really what bother us. Just remember that the thing you didn’t do might have actually been really hard, and maybe the fact that you never moved to Los Angeles to try to be a movie star is really just a blessing in disguise.
  2. CODY: The tallest mountain in the world isn’t NECESSARILY Mount Everest. It does rise the highest above sea level, but it also stands on a plateau that’s about 16-and-a-half-thousand-feet high. If you measured it from the plateau to its summit, then it wouldn’t be as tall as the Alaskan mountain Denali, or the volcano Mauna Kea in Hawaii — which is more than 30,000 feet tall, but is partly underwater. And the summit of Ecuador's Mount Chimborazo [CHIM as in CHIN] is farthest away from the center of the earth. So… they’re all winners in their own way.
  3. ASHLEY: The Deep Web is the 99 percent of the internet you can’t Google — but most of that is just emails, social media profiles, and stuff you need to fill out a form to access. A VERY miniscule portion of the Deep Web is known as the Dark Web, where you can find some more nefarious sites like the Silk Road, which is the illegal drug marketplace  that got shut down in 2013. Since everything on the Dark Web is encrypted, you need to use a special browser like Tor to access it. So you probably don’t have to worry about “accidentally” stumbling across something like that when you’re browsing online.
    1. CODY: A couple clarifications from that story: Tor is PRIMARILY funded by the US government, but not entirely. They do take donations from individuals and there are other major contributors like the National Science Foundation and even other governments. And second, the dark web is not ALL nefarous. 
      1. The Guardian SecureDrop (journalist sites)
      2. FACEBOOK (makes it available in countries that actively try to block Facebook) 
      3. Facilitating harm reduction (Dr James Martin, TEDxMelbourne is one of the foremost experts on cryptomarkets and the online trade in illicit drugs) (NOT the North Carolina one) Has a ted talk that argues that even the “darker” dark web sites are actually leading to less dangerous drug consumption in markets around the world. Basically, people used to go to their corner drug dealer and buy substances and they had no way of knowing what was in them. But because the dark web is online, people have to act like customer service reps and provide goods and services that result in positive reviews, which means they aren’t distributing dangerous products that could hurt people 

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ASHLEY: Today’s writers were Reuben Westmaas and Mae Rice. 

CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer.

ASHLEY: Our producer and audio editor is Cody Gough.

CODY: [AD LIB SOMETHING FUNNY] Join us again tomorrow for a brand-new episode of Curiosity Daily to learn something new in just a few minutes.

ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!