Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why Can’t You Hold Your Breath to Death?
Learn about why you can’t suffocate by holding your breath; how being angry makes you more likely to believe misinformation; and that time scholars tried to kick Latin out of English, thanks to words like honorificabilitudinitatibus.
March 05, 2021
Episode Show Notes:
Why can't you suffocate by holding your breath? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Daniel in Beirut)
- Parkes, M. J. (2005). Breath-holding and its breakpoint. Experimental Physiology, 91(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1113/expphysiol.2005.031625
- Parkes, M. J. (2012). The Limits of Breath Holding. Scientific American, 306(4), 74–79. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0412-74
Being angry makes you more likely to believe misinformation by Kelsey Donk
- Dolan, E. W. (2021, January 8). A new study has found being angry increases your vulnerability to misinformation. PsyPost; PsyPost. https://www.psypost.org/2021/01/a-new-study-has-found-being-angry-increases-your-vulnerability-to-misinformation-59061
- Han, J., Cha, M., & Lee, W. (2020). Anger contributes to the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-39
- Greenstein, M., & Franklin, N. (2020). Anger increases susceptibility to misinformation. Experimental Psychology, 67(3), 202–209. https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000489
16th-Century Scholars Once Tried to Kick Latin Out of English by Arika Okrent
- Specktor, B. (2017, October 2). Shakespeare’s Longest Word Is a Whopping 27-Letters Long. Reader’s Digest; Reader’s Digest. https://www.rd.com/article/shakespeares-longest-word/
- BERLIN, R. L. G. (2014, January 28). Johnson: What might have been. The Economist; The Economist. https://www.economist.com/prospero/2014/01/28/johnson-what-might-have-been
Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Next Up
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why It's Good to Reveal Your Failures
Learn about why successful people should reveal their failures; the extreme story of the death of planet WASP-12b; and why tulips used to cost more than houses during a period known as “tulip mania.”
Curiosity Daily Podcast: People Respond to Music Even When They Can’t Hear It
Learn about why you can have an emotional reaction to music even when it’s not being played; how people have been performing brain surgery for thousands of years; and why some bathroom light switches are outside the room.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why Cavities Are So Sensitive to the Cold
Learn about why cavities are so cold-sensitive; an ant that shrinks its brain; and why swimming makes you extra hungry.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why It’s Relaxing to Breathe in Through Your Nose
Learn about why it’s relaxing to breathe in through your nose and the first woman who’s ever been struck by a meteor. We’ll also answer a listener question about why smacking electronics helps to make them work again.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: The Butterfly Effect Is Why We Can’t Predict Weather, How to Cry at Work, and Eggcorns
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:
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why People Protest According to Psychology, How Scientists Made Blind People “See” Shapes, and May’s Curiosity Challenge
Learn about why people protest and riot, according to social psychology; and how scientists stimulated the brains of blind people to make them “see” shapes. Then, test your knowledge with this month’s edition of the Curiosity Challenge.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why You Think You’re Too Smart for Ads, Studying Violinists to Understand Human Synchrony, and Relieving Pain by Holding Hands
Learn about how a phenomenon called the third-person effect makes us think we’re too smart for advertising to work on us, why scientists used violinists to study how humans sync in a complex network, and why you can relieve pain by holding hands!
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why Futurists Don’t Need to Know the Future (w/ “Flash Forward” Host Rose Eveleth)
Rose Eveleth — writer, producer, and “Flash Forward” podcast host — explains why futurists don’t need to know the future. Then, you’ll learn about the oldest examples of money ever discovered.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why You Should Talk to Strangers, How to Find Your Strengths, and Words with Most Definitions
Learn about why you probably like talking to strangers more than you think (and why you should do it more often); how to discover your personal strengths; and the words with the most definitions in the English language, according to The Guinness Book of Records.
Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why You Should Stop Playing Hard to Get, Why You Need Goggles, and Alzheimer’s Diagnosis
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: