Something You Should Know - Secrets of Peak Performance We Can All Use & Fascinating Math You've Always Wondered About

Episode Date: March 26, 2018

Your homeowner’s insurance (and renter’s insurance if you have it) covers much more than you probably realize – and it is worth knowing. For example, if you receive counterfeit money – your homeowner’s insurance may likely cover you for the loss. Who knew? And that’s only one thing we will discuss that your insurance probably covers. (http://consumerist.com/2012/04/12/stuck-with-a-forged-check-homeowners-insurance-to-the-rescue/) How do peak performers get to the top of their field? And what separates a peak performer from everyone else? High performance psychologist Dr. Michael Gervais has some interesting answers that can help you become a peak performer. Michael works with top musicians, action sports stars and athletes including the Seattle Seahawks. He is also the host of the podcast, Finding Mastery: Conversations with Micahael Gervais (https://findingmastery.net). The number of people who are near-sighted has grown dramatically over the last 20 years or so. Why? You’ve probably heard that it is because we do so much “close-up” work like looking at computer screens and reading books. But that is apparently not it. So what is the reason? Listen to find out.(http://www.nature.com/news/the-myopia-boom-1.17120?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews)   Is zero really a number? What is so important about pi? These are just two of the fascinating aspects of mathematics I explore with mathematician Ian Stewart, retired Professor at the University of Warwick in England and author of several books including The Beauty of Numbers in Nature (https://amzn.to/2DUo0fM). Even if you are not a math lover, you will find this conversation fascinating. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Something You Should Know, you really should read your homeowner's insurance policy, and I'll explain why. Then, understanding the science of peak performance, so you can be a peak performer too. I think the takeaway for elite athletes and performers is not that what they do is so extraordinary. It is. It's rare and it's beautiful and they make things look easy, but it's that they've dedicated their life to get better.

They dedicated their life to grow. And why do that? Plus, why are so many people nearsighted? That answer will surprise you. And you may not realize it, but math can be fascinating. Like the invention of zero. Zero is a number. It's a number on the same footing as everything else. And it sounded crazy because you say, I've got a number of sheep. And somebody says, how many of them have you got?

You say, zero. The response is, you haven't got a number of sheep. You haven't got any sheep at all. All this today on Something You Should Know. 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 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. 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. In between recording the last episode of this podcast and today, I took the family and we went to Hawaii for spring break, went to Honolulu and you know did all the touristy things. We stayed in Waikiki and went snorkeling and went to the Pearl Harbor Memorial which was a rather moving and interesting exhibit and had a lot of fun and now we're back and time to get to work. And we start the podcast today talking about your homeowner's insurance policy. And there is some confusion about that. For example, a lot of people believe that if you have something stolen out of your car,

like a camera or a laptop or something, that your car insurance pays for that. But it probably doesn't. Usually your car insurance is all about the car and the people in it, not so much about the property in it. And so if your camera or laptop is stolen out of your car, usually your homeowner's insurance covers that. But there's more to it than that. There's also a good chance that your homeowner's insurance policy

covers you if you get stuck with counterfeit money or a forged check. It might also protect you from getting sued for libel. Fraudulent purchases and money transfers on your credit or debit card may also be covered by your homeowner's insurance. And if you're not a homeowner and you have renter's insurance, your renter's insurance may likely cover some, if not all, of these things. So it's actually a pretty good idea to read all the fine print of your homeowner's policy. You could find some nice surprises.

And that is something you should know. In doing a podcast like this, as you might imagine, I get pitched a lot of potential guests who want to come on and talk about peak performance. How you can do what you do better than you're doing it now. How to excel. How to be great. How to be your very best self. And having done this podcast and previously the radio show of Something You Should Know for many years, I've discovered that a lot of these people who talk about greatness and being your best self, a lot of them say pretty much the same thing, and a lot of it is their opinion or their personal story, which is great, but it may not work for other people. Consequently, you don't hear a lot of those folks on this podcast,

but nevertheless, I'm fascinated by peak performers. You know, you see them on TV all the time, the very best people in sports, business, music, whatever. What is it that allows them to rise to the very top of their game or profession? What's the difference between someone who does okay and someone who does amazingly well? What is the science of this? Well, a really good person to ask is Michael Gervais. He's a high-performance psychologist.

He works on the science side of high-performance psychology, and he works with a lot of top sports athletes, including the Seattle Seahawks football team and coach Pete Carroll, as well as other top musicians and action sports stars and other game changers. He's also the host of a podcast where he talks with a lot of these folks. The podcast is called Finding Mastery, Conversations with Michael Gervais. Hi, Michael. Welcome to my podcast. Thank you for having me. So what does it mean to be a high-performance person? Have I ever been a high-performance person, likely? Or is it something

that takes years and years of training? Or those moments where I think, God, I'm really on fire today? Is that high performance? That's a great question. And there are moments that we all experience our very best. And what we've learned from the science of studying the best is that there are mental skills that we can train ourselves to be able to string together the ability to be our best. And when I say string together, it's like stitching this moment right now into the next, into the next, into the next. And those that are exceptional or world leading at what they do have the ability to know what their best feels like, both from a craft perspective,

the thing that they're doing, a physical perspective, how they're doing it, and then a mental perspective. So by definition, yes, of course you've had your best. And the begging question is, are you able to stitch that together with the moment right behind it? No. And then maybe the moment behind that. No, not at all. No. But the people that are at the tip of the arrow, as you put it, are they there because they did this, or they're already there, and now they're just getting a little closer to the very tip of the arrow? That's a great question as well.

So there's only three things that we can train as humans. We can train our body, we can train our craft, the thing that we do, if you will, and we can train our mind. And what I've experienced is that those that are on the world stage or world leading or those that are at the tip of the arrow, they know that there's much more to go within themselves. It's like potential is this wonderful concept that there's more in me. And I haven't met anyone that says, oh, yeah, I've reached my potential. I'm done. And so those that are highly dedicated and very hungry to explore the edges of their potential, they've said, most of them have said, I'm ridiculously conditioned in my body. I've spent thousands and tens of thousands of hours on my craft, but I haven't formally trained my mind enough. But are they both parts of the same thing,

a conditioned mind and a conditioned body? Aren't they more or less working together? Oh, a thousand percent. You know, it was long ago when we said there's a split between the body and the mind. Descartes and great thinkers were saying there's a split. And that does help us to conceptualize the difference between the body and the mind, but they are intimately linked. We don't even know, the science of psychology, for as long as it's been around, we don't know where the mind is. One day, maybe we will be able to observe thoughts, how much they weigh, where they go, the intensity of thoughts, the directions of thoughts, but we don't know where the

mind is. We know where the brain is, that three pounds of silly putty that sits in the base of our skull that's the most amazing supercomputer in the world, but we have no idea where the mind is. So we know that they're intimately linked, and we do know, this is I think really important, that there's a direct linking between thoughts, and they go in this order of thoughts, impact emotions, and body sensations, and those three together impact behavior, and those four together impact performance. So if you want to become more powerful as a human, we work up the chain of impact and become more clear about optimizing our thinking. And so when you go up that chain, when you start, where do you start?

Yeah, so with thoughts. Like becoming more aware of thoughts. Yeah, becoming more aware of thoughts and then having the skill to adjust and guide those thoughts to be more optimal. And what does that take? What does that take to adjust your thoughts? Yeah, I think it's a lifetime. I think that it takes a lifetime to do it, but it's not complicated, really. Now, the skill really is self-talk.

And so once you're aware of your inner dialogue, your inner conversations, and how you're thinking about something, and then you need to refine the skill to be strong enough, even in the most hostile or rugged environments, to come back to this moment in a more optimized or even optimistic way about how the future could turn out. And in some kind of ways, it sounds airy-fairy. It sounds like, what is he talking about? Because even in my own head, I'm like, God, there's so many words to describe the most simplest and the most elementary process of being human, your thoughts are under your control. And there's a lot of ways that we practice being aware of our thoughts and then guiding our thoughts to be more effective. And it does seem that that ability to hear yourself talking to yourself, and not only hear it, but also take it for what it's really worth,

that it's probably a very negative self-talk, and that it's really doing you no good, that being able to put the brakes on that, to me, I would suspect, would be a magical skill. Yeah, it really is. And at some point, it's like, you know, I'm just done. I'm just done with beating myself up, because I'm afraid other people are going to beat me up too. So I'm going to get there first. And I'm just done with going into this meeting or going into this intense conversation I want to have with my loved one and just being over worried about how it could go wrong. I'm just done with being anxious about all the things that could be disastrous in my life. Yes, I need to think about all of them and plan accordingly, but I'm just done having the excessive worry that all the things could go wrong, because I end up missing so many opportunities when my mind is worried about all the things that could go wrong. I think when people hear you say things like, you know, the awareness of the sensitivity of your thoughts, I don't know what that means. How do I do that?

What is that? Yeah, that's good. Actually, if I said that, it was, I think what, I probably did say exactly that, but what I wanted to say is to become more sensitive, right? And I don't mean sensitive like in a soft way,

but more like a refined instrument. So the more sensitive the instrument is, the quicker they can pick up noise as compared to the signal. And so if we're highly sensitive, meaning we're highly skilled enough to be aware of negative thoughts or destructive thoughts or self-critical thoughts, then we can quickly course correct and come back to the signal. And so the signal to noise ratio is something that engineers spend a lot of time thinking about. They want to get to the signal. And so the signal-to-noise ratio is something that engineers spend a lot of time thinking about. They want to get to the signal, to have the highest output. And from a mental standpoint, it's the same thing.

The signal-to-noise ratio, the signal is being in the present moment, experiencing without critiquing and being in this moment. And the noise is the critical mind, the anxious mind, the frustrated mind, the worried mind. All of that is noise that pulls us away from being fully engaged in this moment. And what we know from a scientific investigation is that flow state, which by definition is the most optimal state a human can be in. Athletes call it the zone, musicians call it being in the pocket, but it's called flow state from a science perspective. And that flow follows deep focus. And go back to the signal to noise, deep focus

is how you get connected to the signal. And one last piece to this, deep focus is a trainable skill. All of our minds are a bit like drunk monkeys. They're sloppy, they're curious, they're all over the place, easily distracted. It's the natural state of our mind to be distracted. A disciplined mind requires conditioning. And that's part of sports psychology. My guest is high-performance psychologist Michael Gervais. He is the host of

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your first four weeks for a limited time only. Terms apply. See plated.com slash something for details. That's plated.com slash something. 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. That's why we're so excited to introduce a brand new show to our network called The Search for the Silver Lining, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot. Look for The Search for the Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, Michael, I think when people think or when I think of someone like the people you work with top athletes top musicians

top people tops in their field that they have this very disciplined life and i i somewhat interpret that as being kind of like like they don't really have much fun you know that they they're so worried about being so disciplined all the time that, you know, it's like the athlete who is so disciplined that he, you know, turns down the birthday cake at his own party, that it's just like, I don't want to live like that. Yeah, that's really good. Okay, so this is, I think the takeaway for elite athletes and performers is not that what they do is so extraordinary. It is. It's rare, and it's beautiful, and they make things look easy, but it's that they dedicated their life

to get better. They dedicated their life to grow. And why do that? Why do we make some sacrifices that seem outrageous? It's because we know that the cost of giving into whatever temptation to cake or whatever actually gets in the way of deep joy and fun. And so there's a difference between being fully present and experiencing deep joy and deep presence, as opposed to taking the easy way out, which is consuming ourselves with pleasure. And pleasure from a hit of a cake or a hit of a whatever, whatever, whatever, all of that is a quick little buzz or stimulation of pleasure. And there's a difference between the deep knowing and the dedication to the path of mastery versus the more traveled or more common path of consuming pleasure. And there is a

difference between the two. And what I would suggest is that the disciplined mind, while it is hard and takes time and you've just got to put in the work, the reward is that you get to celebrate and be more fully present in life. And that's where the really amazing things happen. It's not about the outcome. It's not about making more money, bigger car,

you know, bigger house on the hill. It's not about that. It's the reward of the knowing and of being fully present of what it takes to do that and to live that on a more regular basis. You don't think that top performers think about or are motivated by the money and the fame and the glory and that it's somehow more mystical and deeper than that? I don't think I agree with that. Well, I've been in this world for a long time, and I think what you're saying is partially correct, which is that there are two different forms of motivation. There's internal and there's external. And the external is what we're talking about, like fame and money and everything that is outside of oneself. And yes, there's a healthy percentage of people that are externally driven and motivated. But the tip of the arrow ones,

the special ones, it's about the way it feels most of the time, not always, right? There's people on the world stage that eat the worst food you can imagine and are the top performers. They do not condition their mind, but they're freaks genetically, and they stick out in any group they go in across the globe. So there's always these exceptions that are important to capture. But most people, the tip of the arrow, like it's towards the top 2%, it's an internal drive that is ridiculous. And it's about getting better and the feeling of getting better and what it feels like to be fully present in challenging conversations, challenging environments. So how do I start to get on the bus here? If this all sounds appealing to someone of, you know know, really, there's room to grow here,

and you can really be a better performer, where do you even begin? Yeah, and I would capture that word performer with an asterisk, is that all of us are performing by being. And I would say the place to start is not trying to just be a better doer, but to be a better being. And so we've adopted this model from

the industrial revolution that we need to do more to be more. And I think you would nod your head to say that's broken. We're tired. We're fatigued. Our minds are anxious and worried that we're not going to be able to do enough. And that affects the way that we experience life. So that doing to be more is broken. We need to flip it on its head. And when you have enough pain, if you will, discomfort with saying, you know what, this model that I've been using that I need to do more to be more is not working anymore. So what's the challenge? To be more authentic. To be more present.

To be more grounded. To be here more often. To be more connected with our loved ones, to be more connected with nature. When the pain and the dissatisfaction of chasing the thing outside of you, whether it's the cake or the glories, when that's not enough and it is not enough, when you accept that pain and say, you know what? That's what it's about. I'm sick and tired of this. That's when change happens.

So where do you start? I would start with something as simple as investing in mindfulness. Just go do a little bit of reading and then practice. Do a little reading on the science and the art of mindfulness, and it's not hard to do now, but it's the practice of being and training your mind to be fully present on a more regular basis. You say that when peak performers train to do what they do, that they train differently than the rest of us. How practice, they're in it. And it's hard. And it's nauseatingly challenging how focused they are during those moments. They create their ecosystem and their environment to push them to the edge of their instabilities, whether that's emotional or physical. And so they get right up to the edge of instability, which is hard to operate in that space.

And so their output is extraordinarily focused and extraordinarily challenging. And that's a day-to-day basis. So if you were to imagine going to the gym and working as hard as you could physically today, and you don't do that on a regular basis, you'd be hurting tomorrow. Your body would say, what have you done? We just went to the edge of our abilities. So the average person needs a lot of time to recover, but they are so talented at doing that on a regular basis,

their body has become conditioned, and they don't have that deep fatigue on the next day, just like you and I. But their levels are so deep that their fatigues, they come at higher outputs. So what I'm suggesting is that the doing is very disciplined, very focused, and it pushes them to the edge of their capacity. And that's what we can learn from great doers, is to be highly focused at what you do and run right to the edge of instability as often as you possibly can. And the new frontier is emotional instability, not necessarily physical, but emotional instability, where it requires great vulnerability to say or do something or take a shot, if you will, take a risk at expressing oneself, either physically or verbally.

Well, I like that idea of, you know, you really do have to push yourself to the edges of your ability because, I mean, if you're going to be a great piano player, you don't get great by playing the same song over and over again. You get great by playing more difficult songs, And that's how you develop your skills. And that's how you get better. And it's good to hear the science behind all of this. Michael Gervais has been my guest. He is a high-performance psychologist. And his podcast, in which he interviews a lot of the high-performance people that he works with and others,

is called Finding Mastery, Conversations with Michael Gervais, which you can find pretty much anywhere you listen to podcasts. Thank you, Michael. Thank you for the conversation. 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. Hey, everyone. Join me, Megan Rinks. And me, Melissa Demonts, for Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? or wherever you get your podcasts. 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. While I am fascinated by science and math, I've never been particularly good at either one. And if you went back and looked at my grades at school, they would reflect that fact quite clearly. My dad was good at math. He was an engineer.

He was very good at math, but it didn't rub off because I just wasn't. Nevertheless, I understand how important numbers and math are to our lives, and no one explains this quite as well or quite as interestingly, in my opinion, as Ian Stewart. He's a mathematician, a retired professor at Warwick University in England, and he's written several books on math. His most recent one is called The Beauty of Numbers in Nature. Hi, Professor. So let's start, because I think when people hear,

oh, God, they're going to talk about math. So let's start with something right off the bat here that everybody would find interesting. I mean, we all know what the equals sign in mathematics looks like. It's a symbol that's very familiar to short parallel lines. But where did that come from? Somebody must have invented it. And in that particular case, we actually know it was a Welsh doctor called Robert Record. He was also very interested in math. And in 1557, he wrote a book called The Whetstone of Wit. And in it, he introduced this symbol. And he says, I will settle as I do often in work use for a pair of parallels, lines of one length, because no two things can be more equal. So not only do

we know who invented it, we know why he invented it. Because those two lines are always equal. Very hard to think of anything that's more equal than two parallel lines. So, quite a clever man. Another one to pick at random is a thing called the kissing number. Sounds interesting. Suppose I give you some coins. Let's say they're quarters. They're all the same shape. And you stick one of them on the table,

and then you start arranging as many as possible around it to touch it. Now, you don't have to do a lot of experiments to discover that you'll get six coins surrounding the central one. They form a nice little hexagon. So the kissing number for circles is six. So the question is, what's the kissing number for spheres? If you do it with tennis balls, what happens? And there was a long historical argument. One of the people arguing was Isaac Newton, who of course is very, very famous. And Newton said he thought the answer was 12. And the other one was a Scottish mathematician called David Gregory

who said, no, I think you can fit in the 13th sphere. All of this happened in 1694. It was a long time ago. Well, it turns out Newton was right. The answer is 12. Mathematicians have actually looked at higher dimensions as well, and sometimes they know the kissing number, and quite often they don't.

It's still an open problem. So that actually has applications to codes and to things like digital radio and television and the Internet and things of that kind. You talk about it, and everyone's heard of the infinite monkey theorem, that if you give monkeys a typewriter, eventually they will, you know, they'll type out the complete works of Shakespeare. And this has actually been tested. Yeah. And this dramatizes two things about random sequences. Firstly, anything can turn up.

So the result need not even appear random. It could look like Shakespeare. On the other hand, it also, if you do the sums, I wouldn't hang around waiting. I mean, you'd have to wait far longer than the lifetime of the universe for the monkey to have any chance of typing a few sentences of Shakespeare, let alone the whole thing. Nonetheless, in a sort of mathematical sense, it's true. It's quite an interesting problem. People have actually done experiments with real monkeys. This doesn't work very well.

Yeah, I would think the monkeys might not be as cooperative as you'd like them to be. They were, yeah, well, basically the monkey just sat there and pressed the same key over and over and over and over again and typed about 17 lines of S's. And then it got fed up and trashed the keyboard, and that was the end of the experiment. People also tried simulating it with a computerized monkey, and the best experiment to date got about 19 letters of part of Shakespeare

before it ground to a halt with a percent sign and other non-Shakespearean symbols. But, you know, some very interesting probability calculations and some ideas. This is related to more important problems in physics as well. So, you know, this is a piece of mathematics that we've all heard of, but perhaps don't realize is actually genuine mathematics. One of the things that I once heard discussed, and it really stuck with me, was the invention of zero, and that zero didn't come along for quite a while,

and that math without zero is very difficult. That's right. I don't talk about it here, although I do mention it. There's a timeline of important mathematical events near the end of the book, and the invention of zero comes in three times. Three different civilizations invented it. In two cases, nobody noticed and it died out again. But the Indian mathematicians, the Hindus, and soon after them the Arabs,

introduced what is effectively our current system for writing numbers with nine digits plus zero. And once you start thinking that way, without zero you have a big problem. I mean, if I write down 935 with no zeros, is that 935? Is it 9,350? Is it 9,305? You don't have a symbol for a gap where the number doesn't occur. So the Indians decided that a symbol for zero

actually made a lot of sense for doing the calculations. But later they realized, and this is much more subtle, that zero is a number. It comes before one. It's a number on the same footing as everything else. And it sounded crazy, because if you say, I've got a number of sheep, and somebody says, how many of them have you got?

You say zero. The response is, you haven't got a number of sheep. You haven't got any sheep at all. But I think it was when they started to use negative numbers to represent debts in financial calculations. pay five pounds out, let's say, then I'm left with zero pounds. And you want to write some number in the ledger, in the book, to say how much money somebody's got, and zero is necessary. So what are some of the other big monumental moments in math? One of the big monumental moments was the invention of calculus. So that was Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, and they introduced this because they wanted to understand physics, basically. They wanted to understand how the world worked.

The invention of geometry is actually very important, especially the Greek version of geometry where logical proof came into mathematics. It may be a bit dry, but it was very, very important for mathematics as a whole. So talk about pi, where it came from, and what's so important about pi? What's the point of pi? Pi comes into a lot of mathematical problems. The main ones, the obvious ones, are to do with circles. If you have a circle with a given size and you want to know how long the circumference is,

the perimeter of the circle, then you have to multiply the diameter by pi. And for practical purposes, pi is about 3.14 and that's pretty good i mean if if i'm an engineer designing a um a racing car and i know what size the wheel is and how fast the wheel is spinning then i can use pi to work out how fast the car will go so it actually relates the the spin spin of the greater spin of the wheel to the distance and speed of the car. But there are other practical problems. We had a bathroom tiled recently, and at one point the tiler said to me,

you're a mathematician, aren't you? I said, yes. He said, there's a formula for the area of a circle, isn't there? I said, yes. He said, I used to know it at school, but I've forgotten it. I need to know it because somebody wants me to tile a circular floor. So I need to know how many tiles to use. So I said, it's pi r squared.

Oh, right, says he. That's great. So it was at least a benefit to the tiler. It's really important for more theoretical reasons. Pi is a very interesting number and it comes up in other parts of mathematics as a very fundamental thing. So the more we know about pi, and I mean nobody cares what it is to millions of decimal places, but actually we do know that nowadays because people use this to test new computers. But theoretical properties of pi are actually very central to mathematics.

What's the hairy ball theorem? I don't ever recall coming across that in my extensive mathematical studies. The hairy ball theorem? You can't comb a hairy ball smooth. Suppose I've got a sphere covered in fur if you stroke the fur like you would stroke a cat you can't make the fur lie down smoothly everywhere at some point at least one point the fur will stick up and there's no way to get around that whereas if you had a hairy donut you could actually you can imagine putting your hand through the hole in the middle and just stroking all the way around, and everything would lie smoothly. So this actually tells mathematicians that in a very fundamental way,

spheres and doughnuts are different from each other. Which is important. Why? For who? How? It has some practical applications to weather patterns on the surface of the Earth, which is a sphere, and to fusion power to magnetic bottles that contain very high temperature plasma in fusion reactors, which people are trying to build at the moment in the hope that these will be a very effective and cheap source of power at some point in the future. Basically, it says that making a spherical magnetic bottle is not a bright idea.

And in fact, what the physicists now use and the engineers now using is donut-shaped bottles. So there are actually some real-world applications, maybe a little bit sort of esoteric, but nonetheless quite important. So when people find out that you're a mathematician, what do they ask you? What do they say? You know, I've always wondered about this thing. What do you find that people are most fascinated or curious about when it comes to mathematics? Okay.

Why does toast always land butter-side down? Hmm. Okay, why does toast always land butter-side down? Hmm, well, that wasn't the genius mathematical question I was hoping for, but okay, so why does toast land butter-side down? And you know the standard joke, if it lands butter-side up, then you must have buttered the wrong side. This sounds like an urban myth, but actually there are mathematical reasons why it's true if you use the kind of math that isaac newton could have introduced and work out what happens

to a slice of toast when you nudge it gently off the edge of a table which is kind of what usually happens as it falls it starts to tilt and as it leaves the, it starts to tilt. And as it leaves the table, it continues to tilt. And you can calculate the speed at which it tilts and how far it falls. And when you put all that together, you find it's much more likely to fall butter side down. Basically, it makes half a turn before it hits the floor. But that's because it started butter side up, right? So that if you put a piece of toast butter side down on the table and knocked it off the table,

then it would land butter side up, right? Yes, it would. If you don't mind a mess of butter on your tabletop, if you butter the toast, turn it over, and then knock it off the edge, the same calculation says it will land butterside up. So the real point is that the side that's up when you start is down when you hit the ground. So then it also has to do with the height of the counter then, right? I mean, if you had a much higher counter, a 10-foot high countertop, it would have more time to tilt, so it could conceivably land differently.

It only works with normal human-sized kitchen tables. If you knocked it off the top of a tall cupboard, it might well flip over twice and then end up butter-side up again. So in fact, the person who did this says this is not actually a coincidence. It's to do with the fact that humans are at the particular height they are, and gravity is the particular value that it is. But actually our height is related to gravity. If we were much taller than we are, if we fell over and hit our heads on the ground,

we'd probably kill ourselves. So there is a sort of limit to how tall it is sensible to be. I don't know what giraffes think about this particular calculation, but nonetheless, it's not totally serious. But there actually seem to be some fundamental reasons why we are the height they are. And of course, kitchen tables are the height they are because they're about half as high as we are

because we like to sit down when we eat. Well, that's pretty interesting. I've never thought of that before, but it is interesting that we're as tall as we are and not a whole lot taller, because if we fell, we'd fall a greater distance, hit our head harder, and kill ourselves. So evolution must play a part in that. If we were made of the sort of stuff that we are currently made of, you could imagine a race of super-strong aliens or something where all of this was nonsense,

or even one that was clever enough to keep its brains in its feet. But if you keep your brains in your head and stick it on top, which is actually a very good place for the visual system because you can see further, then creatures like us made of the sort of stuff we are made of should not be much taller than we are because there is a serious danger that when they trip over, they'll kill themselves. Well, see, that's why it's so interesting to talk to you, because you make me, and I guess everyone else, think about things like, why don't we have our brains and our feet

and other interesting things. Ian Stewart's been my guest. He is a retired professor at Warwick University in England. He is a mathematician and author of several books on the subject. His most recent one is called The Beauty of Numbers in Nature, and there is a link to his book in the show notes. Thank you, Ian. Nearsightedness, or myopia.

It's the ability to see things close up just fine, but things in the distance look blurry. I've had it since I was in college. Not bad, but I have glasses to correct for it. And myopia is becoming a bigger problem. In fact, up to 90% of teenagers who live in China are nearsighted. 60 years ago, it was only 10 to 20% of Chinese that were nearsighted. And it's not just a problem in China. Many places around the world are seeing this. Experts say the phenomenon could lead to more cataracts, glaucoma, and even blindness down the road.

So why is this happening? Well, for years, myopia was thought to be genetic. But what's happening in China proves that that can't be it. Then we were told it was because of close-up work, that we were spending too much time looking at things close up, like computer screens and books, and not looking off into the distance. Well, apparently that's not it either. An article in the scientific journal Nature

says the most likely culprit is lack of bright light. In multiple studies, kids who spent more time indoors had a higher risk of developing nearsightedness. And it doesn't have to do with physical activity. It just has to do with physically being outside and being exposed to bright light. When you're not exposed to bright light, when you're not exposed to bright outdoor light, it inhibits how your eye grows. And that is something you should know. Look, I really want to get to a thousand ratings and reviews on iTunes.

We're getting so close and I really want to hit that mark. So if you have an iTunes account and can take a moment, please leave a rating or review. And don't forget the great advertisers you hear on this podcast, like Plated. Giving our advertisers a try helps to support this podcast. I work really hard at bringing in advertisers that I think are right and keeping out advertisers that I don't think are right. So if you've ever thought of trying out a great home delivery meal service,

Plated is the one and now is the time. Check them out at plated.com slash something. I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Do you love Disney? Do you love Top Ten lists? 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. The parks, the movies, the music, the food, the lore. There is nothing we don't cover on our show. We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney-themed games, and fun facts you didn't know you needed. I had Danielle and Megan record some answers

to seemingly meaningless questions. I asked Danielle, what insect song is typically higher pitched in hotter temperatures and lower pitched in cooler temperatures? You got this. No, I didn't. Don't believe that.

About a witch coming true? Well, I didn't either. Of course, I'm just a cicada. I didn't. Don't believe that. About a witch coming true? Well, I didn't either. Of course, I'm just a cicada. I'm crying. I'm so sorry. You win that one. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown wherever you get your podcasts.

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,

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