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: Weird Things Happen to Your Brain When You Binge-Watch a Show Biologists Discovered What a Talking Monkey Would Sound Like, and It's Creepy Being an Only Child Could Change Your Brain for Life 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 to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
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/your-brain-on-binge-watching-talking-monkeys-and-what-happens-when-youre-an-only-child
[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 how being an only child can fundamentally change the structure of your brain, the weird things that happen to you when you binge-watch a show, and you'll hear what biologists say a talking monkey would sound like.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cody, what's the last show you binge-watched?
CODY GOUGH: The closest I've come to binge-watching recently is when I showed my wife the first episode of Game of Thrones, thinking, let me show you what this show is like. And then four episodes later-- [CHUCKLES]
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, wow.
CODY GOUGH: It was well into the wee hours of the morning.
ASHLEY HAMER: I mean, those are long episodes. That would be a binge. Yeah, for sure.
CODY GOUGH: How about you?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. I'm not a big binge-watcher, but I will watch shows without watching any other shows in between, if that makes sense.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: Like if I'm watching a show, I don't watch an episode of the show, an episode of that show. It's always just that show. But honestly, it maxes out at like two episodes in a row.
Well, binge-watching is big these days. According to Netflix, more than 90% of their subscribers have binge-watched at least one series, which they defined as watching at least one season of a show within a week. There's even a thing called binge-racing, which is where you try to be the first person to finish an entire season of a show within 24 hours of its release.
So today we want to get into what actually happens to you when you're binge-watching a show. First, the positive. It's a stress reliever. A TV show binge can set up a great boundary to keep your troubles at bay, according to Dr. John Mayer, a clinical psychologist with Doctor on Demand.
Bingeing also builds community and can help you build relationships with people you don't have a lot in common with since you can talk about it. And believe it or not, binge-watching can be good for your job, according to psychologist Dr. Renee Carr. She said that if your favorite character is a virtual role model for you, then that could be a good thing. Probably not such a good thing if you're thinking about becoming Walter White from Breaking Bad. But otherwise, a good thing.
But on the flip side, there are psychological dangers that go along with binge-watching. According to a study from University of Toledo, binge-watchers are more prone to depression and high anxiety. That might be because it's also associated with isolation. So inviting friends to watch with you could be helpful.
Bingeing also creates what's called parasocial relationships, which we've written about before on Curiosity. That's when you develop a real relationship with fake people, and that can make the end of a series really hard to handle emotionally. And last but not least, bingeing takes a lot of time. It can make you feel bad for wasting time, and it can also be tiring. Try setting a limit for yourself the next time you binge, and see if it helps you avoid the post-binge blues.
CODY GOUGH: Ashley, have you ever seen Planet of the Apes?
ASHLEY HAMER: Not the original.
CODY GOUGH: You saw the new one?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes.
CODY GOUGH: How was it?
ASHLEY HAMER: I don't remember anything about it.
CODY GOUGH: You fall asleep during movies. You fall asleep, didn't you?
ASHLEY HAMER: No, this was like in high school. I think it came out in high school.
CODY GOUGH: Did you fall asleep during movies in high school?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes, but not this one.
(TOGETHER) [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: You're actually better than me. I shouldn't make fun of you. I have not seen any version of Planet of the Apes.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, you're not missing much.
CODY GOUGH: But when I was growing up, I saw Spaceballs about 800 times. And in one of the final scenes, they parody Planet of the Apes. So that's like the same thing, right?
ASHLEY HAMER: That's the thing. I've seen the parody of Planet of the Apes way more than I've seen the movie. They do it in The Simpsons too.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, I'm sure. That's how I felt when I watched The Godfather for the first time. It's like I've seen every scene in this film.
ASHLEY HAMER: I've heard these lines before.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: Well, I bring up Planet of the Apes because there are apes that talk in those movies, right? But what would a monkey really sound like if a monkey could speak English? Have you ever wondered that? Well, if you have, then you have come to the right place.
ASHLEY HAMER: I mean, this is what science is for, right?
CODY GOUGH: [CHUCKLES] Yes, answering the burning questions. And we'll get into biology today. Now we've seen some animals do a pretty good job of imitating human speech, like parrots, but apes and other primates have never really had that skill to emulate human speech even though they're our closest animal relatives. Crack open a textbook, and you'll read that an ape's vocal tract doesn't have the flexibility it needs to form words the way that we do.
Well, those textbooks weren't good enough for one evolutionary biologist. William Tecumseh Sherman Fitch III is the grandson of the famed union general from the Civil War of the same name. And he and a team figured out exactly how a primate would sound if he could talk. The team took a macaque named Emilio and used an X-ray camera to map out the exact flexibility and vocal capabilities of his mouth. Then they used the simulation to vocalize this phrase.
EMILIO: Will you marry me?
ASHLEY HAMER: It's so creepy.
CODY GOUGH: [CHUCKLES] You really-- it's just like it makes your skin crawl, doesn't it?
ASHLEY HAMER: It really does.
EMILIO: Will you marry me?
CODY GOUGH: The mapping of this macaque's mouths suggests that a wide range of animals might technically be capable of speech. So if it's not flexibility that's stopping animals from talking, then what is? Biologists think it might be because their brains just aren't equipped for the fine muscle control they would need to have over their lips and tongue and vocal cords in order to speak clearly. Speaking is an art after all. Trust me. I would know.
ASHLEY HAMER: You're a professional.
CODY GOUGH: It's one thing I'm exceptionally good at.
(TOGETHER) [CHUCKLES]
ASHLEY HAMER: Today's episode is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
CODY GOUGH: Everyone knows about the risks of driving drunk. You could get in a crash. People could get hurt or killed.
ASHLEY HAMER: 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. 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 every year.
CODY GOUGH: Drunk driving can have a big impact on your wallet too. You could get arrested and incur huge legal expenses. You could possibly even lose your job.
ASHLEY HAMER: So what can you do to prevent drunk driving? Plan a safe ride home before you start drinking. Designate a sober driver, or call a taxi. If someone you know has been drinking, take their keys and arrange for them to get a sober ride home.
CODY GOUGH: We all know the consequences of driving drunk. But one thing is for sure, you're wrong if you think it's no big deal.
ASHLEY HAMER: Drive sober or get pulled over. Cody, are you an only child? I don't actually know this.
CODY GOUGH: Wait. Really?
ASHLEY HAMER: You're not an only child. I knew that. You have brothers. Brothers? Multiple. One?
CODY GOUGH: I have one little sister and two older brothers.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh.
CODY GOUGH: So I'm a middle child. How about you? You have-- you're the oldest.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes.
CODY GOUGH: You have a little brother and a little sister.
ASHLEY HAMER: I do. So neither of us are only children.
CODY GOUGH: [CHUCKLES]
ASHLEY HAMER: So we're just going to have to be jealous of this research that says that being an only child could change your brain for life.
CODY GOUGH: Whoa.
ASHLEY HAMER: Research has actually debunked a lot of myths that say being an only child makes you spoiled or lonely, but scientists have discovered something interesting. Being an only child can fundamentally change the structure of your brain. In a recent study, researchers recruited 303 participants. Some had siblings, and others didn't. They gave participants an intelligence test, a personality test using the Big Five personality traits, the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, and MRI scans so they could get images of their brains.
The test results lined up with previous research. It showed that both groups had similar intelligence levels, and the only-child group tended to show more creativity and less agreeableness. But the MRI scans showed a distinct difference in the volume of gray matter in the brains of both groups. The only-child group showed more gray matter in the part of the brain responsible for language control and processing. The researchers correlated that difference with their creative thinking.
On the flip side, the only-child group demonstrated a lower volume of the part of the brain that controls personality and social behaviors. Researchers linked this finding to those lower agreeableness scores. But this study doesn't mean we're born with different brains. The study explains that both creativity and agreeableness are probably more nurture than nature based on how parents treat children differently.
You can read about the full study today on curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS. But the big takeaway is that if you're an only child, you're not just raised differently. Your brain is different too. But hey, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
CODY GOUGH: Really quick update before we say goodbye. The Curiosity Daily is a finalist in the 2018 Podcast Awards.
ASHLEY HAMER: Whoo.
CODY GOUGH: In the categories of science and medicine and education. Thank you so much if you took time out of your busy day to vote for us. It really mattered. It really made a difference. And we'll find out the winners in each category at the end of September.
ASHLEY HAMER: Fingers crossed.
CODY GOUGH: We will definitely keep you posted. But really, thanks again.
ASHLEY HAMER: Read about these stories and more today on curiosity.com.
CODY GOUGH: 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.
NARRATOR: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.
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