
Curiosity Daily Podcast: How Do Wild Animals Know What to Eat?
Learn why helping others feels like helping ourselves, how wild animals eat healthy, and how the Sahara feeds the Amazon.
June 04, 2021
Episode Show Notes:
We're less likely to remember the things we've given to friends than strangers by Kelsey Donk
- We’re Worse At Remembering Exactly What We’ve Given To Friends Than What We’ve Given To Strangers. (2021, April 12). Research Digest. https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/04/12/were-worse-at-remembering-exactly-what-weve-given-to-friends-than-what-weve-given-to-strangers/
- Uğurlar, P., Posten, A.-C., & Zürn, M. (2021). Interpersonal closeness impairs decision memory. Social Psychology, 52(2), 125–129. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000439
How do wild animals eat a healthy diet when humans struggle to? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Jason in Port Ewen, New York)
- Predators hunt for a balanced diet. (2012). ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120110192942.htm
- Provenza, F. (2018, November 30). Animals Can Help Us Rediscover Our Nutritional Wisdom. Scientific American Blog Network. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/animals-can-help-us-rediscover-our-nutritional-wisdom/
- Strauss, S. (2006). Clara M. Davis and the wisdom of letting children choose their own diets. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 175(10), 1199–1199. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.060990
- Schatzker, M. (2015, April 9). How Flavor Drives Nutrition. WSJ; The Wall Street Journal. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-flavor-drives-nutrition-1428596326
- Tucker, A. (2009, July 14). Why Modern Foods Hijack Our Brains. Smithsonian Magazine; Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-modern-foods-hijack-our-brains-63123747/
- Deckersbach, T., Das, S. K., Urban, L. E., Salinardi, T., Batra, P., Rodman, A. M., Arulpragasam, A. R., Dougherty, D. D., & Roberts, S. B. (2014). Pilot randomized trial demonstrating reversal of obesity-related abnormalities in reward system responsivity to food cues with a behavioral intervention. Nutrition & Diabetes, 4(9), e129–e129. https://doi.org/10.1038/nutd.2014.26
The Amazon Rainforest feeds on millions of tons of dust from the Sahara Desert per year by Grant Currin
- Saharan Dust Feeds Amazon’s Plants. (2011). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-how-much-saharan-dust-feeds-amazon-s-plants
- Yu, H., Chin, M., Yuan, T., Bian, H., Remer, L. A., Prospero, J. M., Omar, A., Winker, D., Yang, Y., Zhang, Y., Zhang, Z., & Zhao, C. (2015). The fertilizing role of African dust in the Amazon rainforest: A first multiyear assessment based on data from Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations. Geophysical Research Letters, 42(6), 1984–1991. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gl063040
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer — for free!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Next Up
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Your Brain on Music, Super-Singing Songbirds, Animal Sunburns
Learn about the social neuroscience of music; songbirds’ ultra-precise song control; and how animals can get skin cancer.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Foods to Curb Sleep Deprivation, Light Levels Affect How Cold You Feel, and Kangaroo Pouches
Learn about why the amount of light you see affects how cold you feel; what’s inside a kangaroo’s pouch; and, foods that can curb the effects of sleep deprivation.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Death to Skeeters, Swapping Saliva, Messing with Lightspeed
Today, you’ll learn about a brilliant biotechnology that is turning mosquitoes against themselves, how babies use a slimy indicator to figure out who can be trusted, and the freaky things that would happen if we messed with the speed of light.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why Some Words Are More Memorable, How Hair Growth Works, and How Fish End Up in Landlocked Lakes
Learn about why some words are more memorable than others; how hair growth works; and how fish end up in landlocked lakes.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why Do Wombats Poop Cubes?
Learn about a newly discovered way to cut down on intrusive thoughts; why wombats poop cubes; and why UPS trucks almost never make left turns.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Accent-Changing Monkeys and the Information “Dataome”
Learn about why monkeys imitate other species’ accents; and the “dataome,” a new way to think about information.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: The Duck-Billed Platypus Is Weirder Than You Thought
Learn about what researchers found when they sequenced the bizarre duck-billed platypus genome; a trick for unlocking your creativity; and the strange reasons for job-specific voices, like those of pilots, newscasters, and poets.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Revenge Bedtime Procrastination, Elephant Trunks, Pineapples Eat You Back
Learn about how to combat revenge bedtime procrastination; the power of elephant trunks; and how pineapples eat you back.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Human-Wildlife Conflict and Believing Leisure Is a Waste of Time
Learn about the science of human-wildlife conflicts; and what you risk by believing that leisure is a waste of time.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why Cities Have Squirrels, How Psychopath Brains Are Different, and a Holographic Brain Device
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you learn something new in just a few minutes: