Curiosity Daily Podcast: The Phantom Time Hypothesis, Cybersecurity Tips, and New Schizophrenia Revelations

Learn about a modern study that supports a 100-year-old hypothesis about schizophrenia; the weird “Phantom Time Hypothesis” about the history of calendars, along with some actual facts about the Middle Ages; and some tips from a computer scientist for better cyber hygeine and cybersecurity in 2019.

January 21, 2019

Episode Show Notes:

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:

A Modern Study Supports a 100-Year-Old Hypothesis About Schizophrenia — https://curiosity.im/2Mh9AMy
According to the Phantom Time Hypothesis, We're Currently in the 18th Century — https://curiosity.im/2MfAIf3
6 Tips for Better Cyber Hygiene from a Computer Scientist — https://curiosity.im/2MjhtkY

Pick up “Mason & Dixon: A Novel” on Amazon. If you make a purchase using this link, then Curiosity gets a share of the sale! 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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Next Up

'My Strange Shark Addiction' Is Coming to Shark Week 2026

Meet the most shark-obsessed "fin-atics" around and take a plunge into their wild fascinations on "My Strange Shark Addiction." Learn all about the new special here!

An Astronomical Review of “Don’t Look Up”

In our annual New Year’s family tradition of struggling to stay awake until midnight, we decided to watch “Don’t Look Up,” the Adam McKay satire starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and other fabulously good-looking people.

Shipwrecked & Surrounded by Sharks

This week, we do things a little differently, as Shark Week’s Luke Tipple invites Adventure Aaron into the podcast studio to talk about his incredible near-death experience on the open water. Adventure Aaron gets into what it takes to circumnavigate the world in an ocean rowboat, what it’s like to stare eye-to-eye with an oceanic white tip that probably wants you for lunch, and everything else that happened to him when his boat was capsized, and he was lost by himself at sea.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Why is Tagging Baby Great White Sharks So Important?

Luke Tipple speaks with Dr. Riley Elliott, a marine biologist from New Zealand who recently tagged baby great white sharks, which are rarely seen in the wild. They talk about how climate change is affecting shark pupping grounds, why fishers are wrong to think there are “too many sharks,” and about Dr. Elliott’s Great White App, which allows users to track great white sharks in the ocean.

Explore the Rugged, Remote Chaco Canyon in New Mexico

Photographer and conservationist Ian Shive photographs one of the most remote and rugged parts of the United States to take us on a journey to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico's Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Did Alien Tech Crash-Land into the Ocean?

Host Luke Tipple is joined this week by renowned Harvard professor, Dr. Avi Loeb, who recently led a deep-sea expedition to discover if evidence for advanced alien life crash-landed off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2014. They discuss the recent Congressional UFO hearings, how the last seventy years of research into extraterrestrial life has been potentially misguided, and the challenges of searching for tiny objects on the bottom of the ocean.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Do You Have the Guts to Be a Shark Handler?

Host Luke Tipple welcomes a pair of divers – Leigh Cobb and Josh Eccles – who have taken their passion for sharks and turned it into a dangerous career. They explore what it takes to swim with sharks for a living, then go into common myths and facts on what to do in the open water – if you ever come face to face with a shark. Plus, our researcher Sierra drops by with a new species of shark discovered in the freezing depths of the ocean.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Nobel Prize Winner Richard Thaler on How Nudge Changed the World — Plus, Squirrel-Inspired Robots

Nobel Prize-winning economist Richard Thaler explains how “Nudge” has changed the world. Plus: squirrel-inspired robots!

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Earth’s Core Growing Lopsided and the Science of Gut Feelings

Learn how to tap into your “gut feeling,” which knows more than you think it does; and why Earth's core is growing lopsided.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Apes Say Hello, Life on Snowball Earth, Learn Twice as Fast

Learn about non-human animals that say hello and goodbye; life on Snowball Earth; and how to learn skills twice as fast.