Something You Should Know - How to Drastically Improve Your Intuition & How Planet Earth Has Shaped Who You Are

Episode Date: August 22, 2019

Your shoulders speak volumes. It turns out how you hold your shoulders telegraphs a message to the world as to what kind of person you are. This episode begins with a discussion about who your shoulders say you really are. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spycatcher/201205/what-the-shoulders-say-about-us At some point you have probably listened to your intuition. It’s a gut feeling. You know you should or shouldn’t do something even though you don’t know why you know it. That’s what is called intuition. But is it a real thing? Can you trust it? Or is intuition just wishful thinking or merely a hunch? And if it is a real thing, how do we make better use of it? Joining me to discuss that is Rick Snyder, author of the book Decisive Intuition. (https://amzn.to/31STDCV)  If you have ever gone on a diet, you probably had the experience that – it didn’t work. However, there are some ways that, according to science, really do work to help take and keep body weight off. Listen as I discuss what those techniques are. https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2016-07-08/the-7-simplest-easiest-ways-to-lose-more-weight-according-to-science You probably tend to think of the earth as a stage on which human history has unfolded. What is so interesting is that our planet is also a major player in human history. It has had profound impacts on everything in ways you likely never considered. Lewis Dartnell explores this in his book Origins: How Earth's History Shaped Human History (https://amzn.to/2KM8lG3) and he joins me for a fascinating discussion about what he discovered. This Week's Sponsors -Native Deodorant. For 20% off your first purchase go to www.nativedeodorant.com and use the promo code SYSK at checkout -Capterra. To find the best software for you business for free go to www.Capterra.com/something. -LinkedIn Jobs. For $50 off your first job post, go to www.Linkedin.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As a listener to Something You Should Know, I can only assume that you are someone who likes to learn about new and interesting things and bring more knowledge to work for you in your everyday life. I mean, that's kind of what Something You Should Know was all about. And so I want to invite you to listen to another podcast called TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks. Well, you see, TED Talks Daily is a podcast that brings you a new TED Talk every weekday in less than 15 minutes. Join host Elise Hu.

She goes beyond the headlines so you can hear about the big ideas shaping our future. Learn about things like sustainable fashion, embracing your entrepreneurial spirit, the future of robotics, and so much more. Like I said, if you like this podcast, Something You Should Know, I'm pretty sure you're going to like TED Talks Daily. And you get TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be right back. most likely not coming from intuition. Intuition usually happens when you're very calm, and all of a sudden you get an insight about a certain direction or a certain action step to take in your life. Plus, proven techniques that work to lose weight without dieting, and the fascinating ways the Earth has shaped human history,

from the soil to the climate, even how the winds blow. In fact... The reason that California and cities like Los Angeles and San Diego and San Francisco, the reason those cities were founded in the very first place, was simply that it's the only place you can get to crossing the Pacific Ocean that was dictated by the winds in the early 1500s. All this today on Something You Should Know. People who listen to Something You Should Know are curious about

the world, looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives and one I've started listening to called Intelligence Squared. It's the podcast where great minds meet. Listen in for some great talks on science, tech, politics, creativity, wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, discussing the future of technology. That's pretty cool. And writer, podcaster, and filmmaker John Ronson, discussing the rise of conspiracies and culture wars.

Intelligence Squared is the kind of podcast that gets you thinking a little more openly about the important conversations going on today. Being curious, you're probably just the type of person Intelligence Squared is meant for. Check out Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts. Something you should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life.

Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. Hi, welcome to Something You Should Know. I am very happy to announce that coming soon, very soon, we will be launching a third episode every week. People have said, you know, I listen to the episodes you release on Mondays and Thursdays. I listen to those during the week. I don't have anything to listen to on the weekend. And so we are going to be releasing a weekend episode starting very, very soon. First up today, your shoulders, your shoulders are screaming. Joe Navarro, a former FBI counterintelligence agent, says that shoulder speak is one of the most telling forms of body language. He says clinical depression almost always shows itself in the shoulders, as if the shoulders are weighed down by sadness.

Broad, straight shoulders are likely attached to someone who is strong, confident, and ready to lead. So it's a good idea to take notice of how you hold your shoulders, because it does send a message. Also, shoulders can be a valuable tool in spotting deception. Liars often raise one or both shoulders ever so slightly when they're falsely proclaiming their innocence. And that is something you should know. You may not know exactly what it is, but you know you have felt your intuition at work. You made a choice or you made a decision based on something other than just the facts.

Your gut told you to do something or you intuitively knew something even though you didn't know how or why you knew it. So the question is, is that a good way to do things? Should you make gut decisions? Or is that just wishful thinking? Or are you just making a guess because you had to make a guess? And what is this thing called intuition exactly? Rick Snyder is somebody who's really researched intuition. And in fact, there has been a lot of new research in the last several years about intuition.

Rick is the author of a book called Decisive Intuition. Hi, Rick. So how do you look at intuition? How do you quantify it, define it? What is it? So everyone I've spoken to has had an experience where they've had a sense about something and sometimes they wish they would have listened to it. And so that really begs that question. What is that intuitional voice that we have at critical moments in our life? And so how I define that is it's an embodied knowing that

comes from listening to what wants to happen next. So that means we actually have to slow down and get present so we can track what is our inner experience that's trying to give us the data and information that we need so that we can actually make our best decisions. One of the criticisms I've heard about intuition from people who have studied decision making is that the problem with intuition is nobody really knows what it is. You can describe it, but you can't define it. It's not a thing. You can't point to a part of the brain and say, oh, see, there's your intuition working right there. It's much more vague than that.

It's a sense, it's a feeling, but it is vague. And that if you have an important decision to make, that's not a good way to go, and that you're better off making your decision based on the facts. Yeah, there's two parts to that. One of them is I think a lot of people confuse intuition with emotional reactivity. So if I feel very emotionally reactive about something and then I'm calling that my intuition because I have a strong no about moving forward in a certain direction or I'm afraid or I'm scared

or I'm overly enthusiastic and I'm not looking at all the different important variables here, that can actually sabotage my success. And so we make a big distinction between emotional reactivity and intuition. And it takes some self-awareness to get clear about how do I know what's what. And so that's one part of it is how do you make that distinction for yourself? And then number two, what the research shows is that data and analytics, along with your intuitive experience, actually those together combine to make the best decisions and the superior decision making. So I really do believe in the marriage of both, that you can have the best data and analytics and not ignore your intuition from all your years of experience.

Well, I know too that I've had intuitive ideas of, you know, go this way, not that way. And yeah, sometimes it's right, but sometimes your intuition can lead you astray. It is, in fact, incorrect. It's a bad idea. Here's what I have found is that when I really get clear about my intuition, it doesn't lead me astray or in a bad direction. But I will say this. Sometimes it might lead me to something uncomfortable. And yet it's an area for growth. Like I could think of a past relationship that I had one time

and I had a very clear intuition that this was an important relationship to go forward with and it ended up being, you know, really challenging and difficult but it was my best life lessons and learning lessons at that time. Sometimes our intuition will take us

out of our comfort zone because we're not going down the linear path of our rational mind that wants predictability, that wants comfort, that wants to know what's going to happen next. But the reality is we live in a world that's unpredictable and at many times chaotic. And so intuition actually keeps us more in the pulse of life where we're with the dynamics of what's happening right now that might always be fluctuating. So you said a moment ago that you have to differentiate between just reacting and intuition and you've got to be in touch with that. Well, how do you get in touch with that? How do you know what the difference is? How do you get better at differentiating those two things? Because I've had probably both and always figured,

well, that's my intuition. Right. So let's take a concrete example. Let's say you're given an opportunity to speak in front of a large audience. And right away, you have this big, strong, no, I don't want to do that. And so is that intuition or is that fear? And so let's break that down. We have two components we use to distinguish the difference between the two. One of them is if there is a strong emotional charge, you're most likely not coming from intuition. Intuition usually happens when you're very calm and you're just going about your day and all of a sudden you get an insight or a strong download about a certain direction or a certain

action step to take in your life or a conversation you need to have. But if there's a lot of emotional charge about it, chances are it's coming from past baggage. Maybe you did some speaking engagement in the past and it didn't go well, or this is your first time getting out on that size of a stage and you're understandably nervous. And so you're going to have a lot of emotions at that stage. So the first piece is looking at, okay, is there a huge emotional charge? And if so, how do I let myself get a little more calm? And I stay with the question of if I want to do that speaking engagement or not. And just from a more calm place, what do I notice? The second thing is there's a lot of story and narrative when you have

a big emotional reactivity. So if I'm getting on stage and I have all these ideas about, oh, this is going to go terrible, and there's a lot of story about it, chances are you're coming from emotional reactivity from the past. Well, sure. I think that's happened to everybody where something is presented to you and it brings back stories from your past that weren't particularly nice and then things didn't go well then so they're probably not going to go well in the future and and so you pass on it and and you're saying that's not your intuition that's fear talking but it's not your intuition now let me give you something a little more nuanced here i've had experiences where you know i've said yes to an opportunity like that. And I still felt fear. Yet I could feel intuitively it felt right to put

myself in that position. So even though there was some fear still that was understandable and reasonable, it wasn't overly charged. It wasn't a lot of story about it. It was a natural, normal feeling of nervousness. And yet what was deeper than that and more real was, oh, I need to be up there. I need to be doing that. I need to be stepping into that opportunity. And even though it's a bit scary, I can feel it's what needs to happen next. It would seem to make sense that, at least for me, if I'm going to use my intuition to make a decision, I'm probably going to do it for small things, less so for bigger decisions, life-changing decisions. Because again, I don't even know what intuition is really, and how you turn it on, how you turn it off, how you differentiate it from other thoughts in your head.

So it seems like small decisions, maybe less harm can come from it. You know, that actually is very wise in the respect that a lot of people don't have a living relationship with their intuition actively. And so the three places we get stopped in living from our intuitive intelligence is number one, we don't know how to recognize our intuitive signals and cues. Number two, we don't trust what we feel. So we might actually be feeling something, we just don't trust it, or we tend to override it for what everyone else is deciding around us, or what it says on the spreadsheet, and not trusting our inner experience. And then number three, the third place we get stuck is we might know exactly what we need to do, we're just afraid to take action. We're afraid to have that conversation and put it into motion.

So I do think what you're saying is great that conversation and put it into motion. So I do think what you're saying is great that, you know what, start small. When you learn a new instrument, you don't get up on stage right away and play your instrument. You practice in your room and you practice your scales. I think the same is true with intuition. Practice with some of the small decisions in your life. And you can even pair with other people around you and say, hey, here's the sense that I'm getting. What do you feel about this? And you can even pair with other people around you and say, hey, here's the sense that I'm getting. What do you feel about this? And you can actually practice that with trusted colleagues and mentors in your life. What do you do when the facts say yes and your intuition says no?

Yes, this is the million-dollar question. So I tend to really pay attention to my inner signals and cues like that. When I get a strong no or a yes about something, I think you've got to pay attention to it and not just override that immediately because the data says this. And so I think it's important to still do your due diligence and go a little bit deeper with the data. But the chances are it might be, oh, this is the right decision, but it's the wrong timing. Maybe this is the right move, but it's the wrong timing.

Maybe this is the right move to make in our company, for example, but we're just a little premature and we need to wait and get a little more data ourselves. And so I think having a red light that way is important to at least put the pause button on, reflect on it, sleep on it, and even talk to some key stakeholders around you as well. Could you respond specifically to the criticism? Because I'd really like to hear what you have to say, because I've heard people say that intuition is not real. It's not a real thing. You can't compare your intuition to my intuition. There's no test for that uh you can't really even tell me what intuition is and so using it to make big decisions is dangerous and so i i'd really like to get your response to that yeah i would say that's more of a traditional older view of intuition and that was probably

pretty common as of at least 10 years ago but there's been so much research with neuroscience even showing in functional mris where when we get certain intuitions, it lights up specific parts of our brain that are even different than insight, where insight is a little more mental and intuition is actually using both hemispheres of the brain, where it's using the emotional component and the insight-driven component as well. And so here's an example where you can measure it that's very practical. Let's take sales. So working with sales people

and actually teaching them intuitive skills to actually read out the relational space and things like body language, energetics, emotions, what people are not talking about in a sales conversation. How do you intuit the need of the person in front of you is a very valuable gift for sales. And I think every salesperson would agree. And so imagine getting to train that and seeing metrics increase, seeing people increase their conversion rates by three times what they were doing before intuitive training. So that's what's

so great about sales is you can actually track it and measure it. and it's such a great way to make decisions is their decision making more right than people who don't use it here's what here's what the research shows is that when you combine uh critical analysis with intuitive decision making and letting your letting your subconscious do the work, not just your linear thinking like we're talking about, but actually dropping a level deeper into your subconscious, that's where you process information 500,000 times faster than just your conscious mind alone. And so the research will show that where they'll take three groups, for example, and they'll literally overwhelm them with data on purpose. And the first

group has to make a decision out of the two choices just right away with their first impression. The second group gets three to five minutes to critically think using their analytical skills. And the third group, they actually distract their conscious rational mind so that their subconscious in the background goes to work on the problem. And they found with statistical significance, the third group always makes the best decision when they're having time for their subconscious to do the work. So that's why when someone in your family might have said, if you have a tough decision, sleep on it. There's actually a lot of wisdom there because your subconscious mind is completely active in your dream states. And that's where you're connecting all the dots from the day

so that you can have a more holistic picture of what you're trying to address in your life. Great. Rick Snyder is my guest. He is author of a book called Decisive Intuition. Hi, I'm Jennifer, a co-founder of the Go Kid Go Network. At Go Kid Go, putting kids first is at the heart of every show that we produce. That's why we're so excited to introduce a brand new show to our network called The Search for the Silver Lightning, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot. During her journey, Isla meets new friends, including King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, and learns valuable life lessons with every quest,

sword fight, and dragon ride. Positive and uplifting stories remind us all about the importance of kindness, friendship, honesty, and positivity. Join me and an all-star cast of actors, including Liam Neeson, Emily Blunt, Kristen Bell, Chris Hemsworth, among many others, in welcoming the Search for the Silver Lining podcast to the Go Kid Go Network by listening today. Look for the Search for the Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast. And I tell people, if you like something you should know, you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest.

Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests, but Jordan does it better than most. Recently, he had a fascinating conversation with a British woman who was recruited and radicalized by ISIS and went to prison for three years. She now works to raise awareness on this issue. It's a great conversation. And he spoke with Dr. Sarah Hill about how taking birth control not only prevents pregnancy, it can influence a woman's partner preferences, career choices, and overall behavior

due to the hormonal changes it causes. Apple named The Jordan Harbinger Show one of the best podcasts a few years back, and in a nutshell, the show is aimed at making you a better, more informed critical thinker. Check out The Jordan Harbinger Show. There's so much for you in this podcast. The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. So Rick, it seems that a lot of times people use intuition in the moment. It's instant. It isn't sleeping on it. It's, for example, the elevator door opens and a guy gets in the elevator that looks very shady

and makes you nervous. So you get off the elevator and you say your intuition told you to do that. There was no time for a lot of critical thinking. My gut said, get off. And I got off. And that's what I think a lot of people view as intuition. Yeah, I do think that's true. Like, for example, a lot of kids, when children feel weird around a stranger or somebody, listen to your kids, you know. And I think children are much more open to their intuition before the rational mind and the neocortex really gets, you know, embedded later in life with all our programming that we take on. So I think children have a natural access that way, as do adults when you start to unlearn and you start to breathe and get more present to your environment. But I think you've got to pay attention to those environmental cues. And here's the other side. Once again, what if you're coming from impulsivity? So that's where some people who say, yeah, I'm a gut guy. That's what I do. I make calls out of my gut. But a lot of times it's out of impulse and out of

stress or emotional reactivity. So that's where it really pays to slow down and take a few breaths and really check in with, okay, is this something that does feel intuitive or am I just reacting to the moment right now? But sometimes you don't have time to do that. There's no time to take a breath. You either get off the elevator now because the doors are closing. There's no time to say, hang hang on everybody, I need to take some breaths and think about this and see if I should stay or go. Yeah, so you're right. In some situations in life, you don't have that luxury. You're right. And so in that moment, I err on my intuition. I've learned to trust my signals and cues in those moments. When I'm in that elevator and I don't feel comfortable, I'll step out of the elevator. What's the risk of that? Right. So it would seem that people have different levels of intuitive ability. And so the question

is, why is that? Why is someone's intuition better than someone else's intuition, seemingly? And if you don't have a lot of intuitive ability, how do you get it? And how do you know you got it? Yeah. So the first question, yes, I do think that some people have more natural talent when it comes to their intuitive gifts than others. And I also think that everyone can learn the skill like any skill. It's very much the same like if we take athletics, some people are more naturally athletic than other people. And yet, if you practice, you know, your layups, or if you practice, you know, your shots and basketball every day, you're going to get incrementally better if you practice every day. Same is true with intuition. This is what we're finding working with leaders and teams, that actually getting to

practice their intuitive skills is something that is mostly off the radar of most organizations so far today. And so this is such an invisible edge for people who are putting attention on slowing down, taking a breath, tracking their inner signals and cues, and learning how to engage with their intuitive intelligence that way. And so yes, I do see, and we've seen that people progress the more that they put attention on this as a skill to develop. And you do that by doing what and how do you know it's working? Yeah, so we have a six-step process, and I'll just run through it really quick here. So the first step is receptivity, is even having your mind being open to the possibility of, okay, maybe there is intuition. Let's at least be open to that possibility. And maybe information could come toward me.

I don't have to go out there and seek everything in a hunting direction, but I can actually open up my mind and let things come towards me. Because that's one interesting thing about intuition is it comes towards you. You don't find your intuition. It actually finds you when you relax. And so you have to get into a relaxed state, which the mind is sometimes really has a furrowed brow and is really crunched and trying to narrow its vision. Instead, you have to have an open, receptive mind as the first step. Second step is to slow down. So now that my mind is open, how do I actually slow down and get present to what my experience is internally? Step three is then,

now that I've eliminated the outer distractions, I have to pay attention to the inner distractions and separate the voice of my inner critic from the voice of my intuition. Once that starts to get decluttered, let's say, and you're more clear about your intuitive signals and cues, the next step is then going deeper and listening to my body. And the idea is that the body is wiser than the mind when you start to tune into it. That's where our subconscious really lives. And then after that,

we then ask a question. So let's say I'm facing a tough hiring decision at work, or maybe it's a decision about my relationship. And if it feels dead to me, should I carry on or stay in it? That's where I then ask a question for guidance. And then lastly, it's about putting that answer into action. So when I do get an intuitive download or response, how do I put that into action in my life? Do you think, though, that often what happens is people say their intuition told them to do something when really it's just they want something. So they use that as a justification for getting it. They want to buy that expensive car and they say, you know, my intuition told me to do it when really they're just using it as an excuse or they're using it to talk themselves into making that decision

because they really want it. Yeah. So if you notice you're talking yourself into something and there's a lot of back and forth and lawyering, that's probably coming from your critical mind. That's probably coming from your inner critic, you know, trying to dissuade you or why you should or shouldn't do something or doubt all the doubt that comes in, which is one of the biggest obstacles to intuition. When I get intuitive downloads about something, it's very clear. It's very clear. It's non-dramatic. There's not a lot of story to it. There's not a lot of emotional charge. It's very like, oh yeah, this person's the right hire for our company. And I still want to do my due diligence and do my background check and all those things. But I'm going to be paying attention to

that sense of clarity and flow and ease. And so that's really when I'm in when I'm checking in with my intuition, that's what it feels like. It's not very loud, necessarily or dramatic. Sometimes it's a whisper, but it's a very clear, distinct feeling. And one thing you can do is check back to remember a time in your life when you had a strong sense about something that you didn't listen to. And so one question I ask is, how did that information come to you? And this is the first place to start to detect your intuitive language. Did you get pictures and words? Did you get a feeling somewhere? Did you get a visual? Did you get a sound? Did you hear some audio messaging? Did you get something in your dream state? So this is a great way to just start tracking in hindsight how your intuitive language might speak to you. So I want to get a better handle on this idea of intuitive downloads that you've mentioned a couple times. And this idea that you've said that intuition sometimes shows itself by you know something and you intuitively know it and you don't know how

you know it you just know it and i i don't think i really understand that exactly so can you give me an example of what that looks like okay i'll give you an example like um so i had a strong intuitive download to go to france to write book. And that seemed really out of the unknown. I don't even speak French. I have been to France, but I never had a pull necessarily to that land or culture to live there. But I had a strong feeling that that's where I needed to write my book. And I saw this image of being somewhere by the sea, by the Mediterranean. And so it was

one of those things where I noticed that and that feeling did not go away. And in fact, it seemed to be one of those synchronicities where every time I heard about France or read about it, something electric in me awakened. Is that the right word? Something awoken me electrically. And it was just this confirmation every time like, wow. And it wasn just this confirmation every time, like, wow. And it wasn't Italy. It wasn't Mexico. It was very clear, go to France to write this book. And that's exactly what I did.

And it was the most amazing apartment that I found that had that sea view. It was very inspiring to write my book. And just to get out of everything that I knew in the American culture at the time was very helpful to have a creative mindset and to really start fresh and have a new perspective. So this literally came from nowhere. I couldn't pick to one logical data point that would say go to France. I even said out loud, but I don't even speak French. But I knew from past experience that when I don't listen to these critical signals that are coming from a deep place within, I regret it later. There's consequences. Well, this is really helpful because everyone has felt what they think is their

intuition at work and wonder, you know, what it is and is this a good way to go? And this really helps understand it better. Rick Snyder has been my guest. The name of his book is Decisive Intuition, and you'll find a link to that book in the show notes. Thanks, Rick. Appreciate you being here. Great. Thank you. Appreciate it too. Do you love Disney? Then you are going to love our hit podcast, Disney Countdown. I'm Megan, the Magical Millennial. And I'm the Dapper Danielle. On every episode of our fun and family-friendly show, we count down our top 10 lists of all things Disney. There is nothing we don't cover.

We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney-themed games, and fun facts you didn't know you needed, but you definitely need in your life. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. Join me, Megan Rinks.

And me, Melissa Demonts, for Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? Each week, we deliver four fun-filled shows. In Don't Blame Me, we tackle our listeners' dilemmas with hilariously honest advice. Then we have But Am I Wrong?, which is for the listeners that didn't take our advice. Plus, we share our hot takes on current events. Then tune in to see you next Tuesday for our Lister poll results from But Am I Wrong? And finally, wrap up your week with Fisting Friday, where we catch up and talk all things pop culture. Listen to Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. When you think about the things that have changed and steered all of human history, you think of people and politics, disease, natural disasters. What else? Weather. These are the things that have shaped our history. And that history has played out on the stage called Earth. We generally think of our planet as a place where things happen, but what's so interesting is that the Earth is actually an important character in the story of our history. The world we live on has shaped a lot of what, who, and where we are today.

To explain how and why it's important to understand is Louis Dartnell. Louis is a professor of science communication at the University of Westminster in the UK, and he's author of a book called Origins, How the Earth's History Shaped Human History. Hey, Louis. Hi, Mike. Thank you so much for having me. So let's dive right into an example of what you're talking about, because I think when people hear, well, the Earth itself has had an impact on our history, it's hard to understand what exactly you mean. So let's start with an example, if you

could. In fact, my favorite example is a political example. And it turns out in the southern states of the United States of America, it's a mostly Republican voting area, apart from a very distinctive thin blue curve of Democrat voting counties. And that arc corresponds with rocks beneath people's feet, which are 80 million years old. And it's astonishing when you think about it. People are voting for Hillary Clinton in the last election rather than Donald Trump if they happen to have rocks beneath their feet,

which are 80 million years old. Somehow the Earth has been influencing the way that people vote. And what has happened here in this particular example is there is a line of rocks that are 80 million years old from the Cretaceous era of Earth's history, which when they've weathered has given a particularly fertile, rich kind of soil, which was realized in the 1800s as very good at growing cotton. And so unfortunately, in that period of American history, harvesting cotton in plantations meant using slave labor. And even hundreds of years later, after the Civil War and the freedom of slavery, the greatest density of African Americans today still live along this Cretaceous arc in the southern states. These are people that unfortunately still suffer from socioeconomic problems, of poor education, of low wages,

people that therefore tend to vote for Democrat ideals rather than Republican ideals. So there's that chain of cause and effect through hundreds of years of human history and then millions of years of our planet's history. Yeah, great. That's a perfect example of how the earth, just being the earth, influences politics and voting and our history. So give me another one. Why do most of us, for breakfast, have a slice of toast or a bowl of cereal? And indeed, we eat cereal plants as the staple of all of our meals. It's wheat and rice and maize, which have in fact fed all of the people around the world in all civilizations throughout human history.

And the astonishing fact behind this is that all of those cereal crops are species of grass. Humans eat grass in just the same way that the cows or the sheep or the goats we leave out to pasture do. But we don't have four stomachs like a cow to enable us to break down and eat that grass. So we've had to apply our brains to the problem rather than our stomachs. We've invented things like the millstone and the water wheel and cooking that grain into bread to help us digest those nutrients. And the reason that we adopted the grasses to feed ourselves thousands of years ago was that grass, in an ecological sense, is very fast growing. It colonizes an area after the forest has disappeared, after something like a forest fire. And so it puts all its energy into the grain that we can eat and doesn't waste building wood or bark. So our ancestors hit upon the particular plants to domesticate that would give us the most efficient use of things we could eat when we're inventing agriculture 10,000 years ago. Another way that the Earth has played such an important role in the history of human beings

is how we use the Earth's resources to build, and how we have done that over centuries and centuries, because the Earth provides what it provides, that's all it provides, and so humans have figured out ways to adapt what the Earth's resources are to build buildings and cities. So talk about that. Again, the history of civilization has been digging underground to the rocks beneath our feet,

and then piling them up in walls to create our temples and our cathedrals and our defensive walls and our houses. But not all rocks were created equally. Some are better than others. And so just the natural resources you have available to you can start dictating what civilizations can build with. So Mesopotamia, for example, the land between the rivers, was the crucible of civilization. It was the emergence of the first big cities and the emergence of civilization

between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but it had no natural rock to build with. The civilization was literally built of the mud beneath their feet that were growing their crops in. And if you look at the United Kingdom, where, as you can probably tell from my accent, I am from, there is a very diverse spread of different kinds of rocks from all different chapters of Earth's history across the British Isles. And so as a geologist, you could be teleported anywhere in Britain, take your blindfold off, and just by looking at the buildings around you, have a pretty good idea exactly where you are, because you recognize that particular kind of stone, that is of a particular age,

and of a particular region of the country. So I can certainly understand how weather and climate have affected history, because it determines in part where people live and where people don't live. But you talk about how wind has been a particular player in our history. So explain how. One of the most critical chapters in more modern history was the age of exploration. When Europe first started exploring out around the rest of the world and was trying to build trade routes to India and discovered the Americas. And by using sailing ships, started to knit together the continents of the planet in a way that had never happened before in history.

And all of this came down to what direction does the wind blow in? How can I get from one place to another as easily as possible? And that is dictated by the fundamental circulation currents in the atmosphere. It's the circulating atmosphere that dictates where the wind blows and therefore where you can build your trade route and therefore where you have to build your ports and your fortresses and your colonies. And even looking at a modern map today, you can still see the kind of telltale pattern of where things are that was dictated by the winds

in the early 1500s. And to give you one particular example of that, the reason that California was so critical in recent history, and cities like Los Angeles and San Diego and San Francisco, the reason those cities were founded in the very first place was simply that it's the only place you can get to crossing the Pacific Ocean from China following the winds. It dictated where people landed with their ships, and therefore where regions developed with the cities and therefore where regions developed with the cities and the civilization that it was bringing. And since we're on the subject of wind and therefore climate, one of the things that's always interested me is, you know, why people settle where they settle, why people live where they live, because there are some places, you know,

because of floods or because of whatever reason, seem like an odd place to choose they live, because there are some places, you know, because of floods or because of whatever reason, seem like an odd place to choose to live, but nevertheless, people do. Absolutely. So people settle down where they're able to support themselves, whether that's from farming or perhaps being, you know, nomads following their herds of cattle across the steppes. And in fact, if we look at where the earliest civilizations emerged on Earth, a lot of them cluster right along the tectonic plate boundaries, along these fractures in the skin of our planet. And this in itself is curious, because plate boundaries are where there's lots of earthquakes, where there's volcanoes.

So why on earth would people choose to settle in these perhaps unstable, dangerous locations? And to pick up the example of Mesopotamia, which we mentioned earlier, the very cradle of civilization, that plate boundary simply created the ideal conditions for early agriculture. It created the conditions for gently flowing rivers that dropped a lot of very fertile sediment that made farming very easy. And that's because it was lying alongside a range of mountains. And the weight of that mountain range, the Zagros, was sagging down across the planet to create this foreland basin. But civilization itself emerged in what was effectively a tectonic trough. I still wonder why there are some places that are truly extreme in their climate. They're either very hot or they're very cold or they're very rainy and muddy or whatever it is.

And yet people still choose to live there. And you wonder, well, why live there when there are seemingly nicer places to live? So humanity has now spread all the way around the world. We've colonized and live in everything from deserts to tropical zones, up mountains in Arctic regions. And in a sense, what's enabled us to do that, we are the most widely distributed animal species on the planet. We're incredibly adaptable and diverse in where we can support ourselves and settle down. And in effect, that's because we're intelligent. We can use our tools and our technology to create artificial environments for ourselves. We wear clothes

because we don't have fur, so we can live in both warm places and cold places. We've invented fire that helps us live in much colder places. We've invented farming and agriculture that can feed us reliably. And what has probably happened is that our intelligence was given to us by the unstable climactic conditions in the Rift Valley of East Africa where we evolved. We evolved to out-think our environment, to be able to survive a fluctuating environment. And when we migrated out of the dry heat of East Africa, we took that intelligence with us, which enabled us to then colonize all the different ecosystems around the world, from the deserts to the mountains to the Arctic regions. Again, we're kind of carrying that product of the earth in our bodies and in our brains which has enabled us as a species to become

so effective. So when you research this in this mindset of, you know, how the earth impacts us and shapes our history and all, what's the one thing that in all the research you did, you found just really fascinating, really particularly interesting that people might not know? So there's one fact that immediately jumped out at me. I just sat back and went, whoa. And if I asked you, Mike, how many metals do you think you've got on your person right now? So maybe a bit of steel, if you've got a set of keys, maybe some aluminium, if you've got a drinks can with you, maybe some copper, if you have some coins, like of all the different kinds of metals, how many do you think you have on you in your pockets, on your body?

Four. So I think four is a pretty good guess. That's exactly what I would have thought. But if you've got a phone in your pocket, a smartphone, you actually have over 30, three, zero different metals on your person right now. And the vast majority of them, you wouldn't even recognize the name of the things like yttrium and sprobium. They're exotic, rare metals that have got a particular combination of electronic properties that make them very good for making electric circuits out of them, in particular making things like the touchscreen of a mobile phone or of an iPad. And it's the earth that's given us those metals as well. It's not just iron and steel and lead and copper

that we've used through history. We're now using dozens and dozens and dozens of these exotic technological metals. And many of these are what is known as rare earth elements, rare earth metals. And it just so turns out that China is currently supplying over 80% of rare earth metals to everyone else around the world. And that's given them an incredibly strong position when it comes to trade negotiations and trade disputes, perhaps with the US and China at the moment is being able to provide those rare earth elements

that most people in the world wouldn't even recognize the names of that have become so critical to how our modern world works. And again, it's the geology that's provided those rare earth elements within China. Well, it's really fun and interesting to hear the individual stories of how the earth has played a role in our history, as you've outlined. But in a big picture way, what's the big so what here? Why should we care? What's the overall impact of all of this?

So I think the reason I wrote this book, the reason I researched and wrote Origins, is because I think when we think about history, we mostly focus, as you said, on great people, on defining moments, on defining battles. We focus on culture and sociology and psychology. And of course, all of those things are important. But lying beneath all of those other layers of explanation are the planetary layers. There's things about where the resources are available. It's about the way that the atmosphere circulates and therefore where the winds blow. It's about where the mountain ranges are that constrain where people move and can settle down. So I'm not saying that history for history is not important to talk about

culture and society and economics. What I'm saying is that beneath all of that, the bedrock of history, if you'll allow me the awful pun, the bedrock of history is the planet itself. And I think that's been overlooked in recent years of history. And I'm just trying to redress that balance, to explore the planet as a key role in the human story alongside humans themselves. Well, it's not the normal way we think about history, but when you start to think that way, yeah, it really is interesting. Lewis Dartnell has been my guest.

Lewis is a professor of science communication at the University of Westminster in the UK, and his book is called Origins, How Earth's History Shaped Human History, and you'll find a link to his book in the show notes. Thank you, Lewis. Thanks for being here. Thank you very much for having me, Mike. Cheers. While fad diets come and go, there are some no-nonsense, scientifically proven, maybe not so sexy ways that still take the weight off and keep it off. First of all, trade in the treadmill for weights.

People lose more weight, especially belly fat, when they lift weights, compared to spending the same amount of time doing cardio. Researchers say that unlike cardio, which burns the vast majority, if not all of its calories during the workout, strength training with weights causes you to burn calories even after you're done, and it hikes up your metabolic rate thanks to an increase in lean muscle mass. Another idea is to darken your bedroom. Any light coming in from outside or from devices in the room can disrupt your sleep and throw off your body's rhythms. In a study of more than 100,000 women, participants who slept in the darkest rooms were 21% less likely to be obese than those who slept in the lightest rooms.

Get social. Having an accountability buddy will help you stay consistent with exercise and good nutrition, and that will help you lose weight. And also, use smaller plates. Research has proven time and time again that plate size has a greater impact on the amount of food you eat than most people realize. The smaller the plate, the less food you eat. And that is something you should know. If you like this podcast, I invite you to share it with someone you know. I'm Mike

Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair

form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook. Starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Rob Benedict. And I am Richard Spate.

We were both on a little show you might know called Supernatural. It had a pretty good run. 15 seasons, 327 episodes. And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times, we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again. And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride. We've got writers, producers, composers, directors, and we'll of course have some actors on as well,

including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers. It was kind of a little bit of a left field choice in the best way possible. The note from Kripke was, he's great, we love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent Duchovny type. With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes, so please join us and subscribe to Supernatural then and now.