Something You Should Know - SYSK Choice: The Power of an Alter Ego & Fascinating Moon Facts

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Starting point is 00:00:17 You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches. Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. Today on Something You Should Know, dealing with the problems of adult-sibling relationships. Then the amazingly effective strategy of using an alter ego in important moments that matter. I used this idea when I played football. I was six feet tall and like 159 pounds when I was in high school,

Starting point is 00:00:50 but I played way bigger than what my actual size was because I never went out there as just quote-unquote Todd. I went out there as Geronimo. Also, just how much water are you supposed to drink every day? And it's been over 50 years since we first went to the moon, and you're about to discover some amazing things about our closest heavenly neighbor. We're working out that the moon is very slowly but surely moving away from us. And it's moving at a very slow rate. It's about 3.5 centimeters a year,

Starting point is 00:01:21 which is about the same rate that our fingernails grow. And as it spirals away from us, it actually picks up speed. 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.

Starting point is 00:01:50 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

Starting point is 00:02:25 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. Do you have siblings?

Starting point is 00:02:49 I have four siblings, and we're all spread out all over the country. And as you know, if you do have at least one brother or sister, those relationships can change quite a bit as you move from childhood to adulthood. The number of Americans who are completely estranged from a sibling is actually pretty small, probably less than 5%. Yet only 26% of 18 to 65-year-olds report having a highly supportive sibling relationship. 19% have an apathetic relationship,

Starting point is 00:03:23 and 16% have a hostile one. There are two personality types who appear prone to being estranged by their siblings, those who are extremely hostile, and then those who Gene Safer, a New York City psychotherapist, calls grievance collectors. Those are the people who say, You never thanked me for those flowers I gave you in 1982. That gets old and siblings go their separate ways. Interestingly, two-thirds to three-quarters of mothers have a favorite child, according to research.

Starting point is 00:03:57 And when that favoritism is obvious, the siblings are more likely to become estranged in later life. Your siblings are the longest family relationships you have. So perhaps reconnecting is a good idea. Perhaps not. It's complicated. And that is something you should know. When you were a kid, I'm sure that at times you would pretend to be someone else. Maybe you were Superman or Batman or Wonder Woman, a secret agent or a fairy princess.

Starting point is 00:04:33 Whatever it was, for that moment in time, you became that person. You acted like them, talked like them, and thought like them. The idea of having an alter ego like that is something people can and often do in grown-up life as well. And in fact, it can really help you be more effective and successful in the things you want to accomplish by taking on another persona. Athletes do it, actors do it, and so can you, according to Todd Herman. Todd's a performance coach and mental game strategist, and he's author of the book The Alter Ego Effect, The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life. Hi, Todd. Welcome. Thanks for coming on. Mr. Carruthers, it is a pleasure

Starting point is 00:05:18 to be here with you. Thanks. So explain in a nutshell how this alter ego effect had, or it's the secret that people have used to help themselves get out of their own way, because we all carry, you know, narrative and story about who we think we are and what we're made of into our, you know, daily lives. And a lot of times the narrative for many people isn't a supportive one. And so an alter ego, it comes from Cicero. Cicero named the name alter ego back in 44 BC, when he penned a letter to a friend of his, and its root meaning means the other I or trusted friend. So you said that athletes use this alter ego idea when they play their sport. And I know you played sports. So explain how that works. I used this idea when I played football. I was six feet tall and like

Starting point is 00:06:32 159 pounds when I was in high school, but I played way bigger on the football field than what my actual size was because I never went out there as just quote unquote Todd. I went out there as Geronimo, which was a composite of a bunch of different heroes in my mind to help me sort of tap in and leverage their attributes and their traits. And so I ended up building up a very successful sports training company, working with pro athletes, Olympic athletes. And I discovered along the way that the athletes that were consistently performing at a high level, all seemed to be tapping into this idea of leveraging a persona, a character. They would say things like I step into a different version of myself when I go out there. And it sort of pinged with me because I, I did the same thing. Um, and in fact, I did the same thing when I started my business.

Starting point is 00:07:26 I was so insecure about how young I looked. So I built up a concept in my mind of being super Richard. And it was my way of getting past my insecurities, how young I looked, get past the insecurity of selling myself. And instead, super Richard went and sold my workshops for me until at one point in time, and this is the kind of the big promise that people have experienced with leveraging this idea, is Cary Grant had this great quote at the end of his career. Hollywood golden era actor, very debonair, charismatic, somebody known for. And he said, I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be. And I became that person, or he became me. But at some point in time, we met. And the only thing I would change there is instead of pretended, is I activated somebody I wanted to be. How do you do this? How do you activate your alter ego? How do you turn it on? How do you turn it off? What's the process you go through?

Starting point is 00:08:25 How we activate this idea is first, we always act through identities for specific roles and fields of play that we have in life. No one person on the planet is one identity. In fact, the psychology world for the longest time trotted out that idea, thinking that the people who had identified themselves with having a single self or a single identity were the healthiest mentally. It's categorically false. It's not true. And they've entirely backtracked on it. Now we understand, or they understand, I've understood this for a very long time, that we have multiple selves that are all congruent with the many roles that we play in life. And I say all this

Starting point is 00:09:05 to answer the question. Okay, so how do we activate it? Pick a very specific role or field of play that you have in life. And that's frustrating you possibly right now, because you're not showing up like you want to, or you're acting so insecure, you're so concerned about the concerns, the worries, the judgments that other people might be placing on you and it's trapping you, right? Like you're not getting all of your skills out there possibly. You're not taking the actions that you want. That's a great place to start. So whether it's business or whether it's not going to the gym or something, find that. And then we want to, okay, well, how would you most want to be showing up there? Okay. So I get the fact that

Starting point is 00:09:45 you're not showing up the way that you want to, but how would you most like to show up? And then if that's the case, who represents the traits, the qualities, the abilities that you would love to start, you know, revealing on that field of play. And that question starts to allow us to find the inspiration for the, the alter ego that we might use. Okay. So whether it's, you know, people automatically go to and think about superheroes, but in fact, the inspiration comes from many places. Kobe Bryant used the black Mamba. Other athletes have used, say the idea of of a machine like Jerome the Bus Bettis. Beyonce used Sasha Fierce.

Starting point is 00:10:29 So the mistake people make is, no, I understand that you can use this for sports or you can use this for entertainment, but I'm a sales professional. Yeah, well, you're performing just like everyone else is. You might not be on a stage in front of 110,000 screaming fans or something, but at the end of the day, we're all performing. It means we're all trying to bring our best to that moment so that we get a specific action to happen. I think that's such a great idea because everybody has been in that situation where it's, you know, a job interview or you're meeting somebody and you feel intimidated by the situation, maybe because there's a lot riding on it and you're acting exactly how you don't want to act because you're so intimidated by it.

Starting point is 00:11:13 And this is something that you can kind of pull out of your bag of tricks to help overcome that, I guess, right? Yeah, absolutely. It's the power of how our mind can create different worlds, right? Our creative imagination is the great superpower that human beings have. And we dim it, we mute it, and we walk away from its use as we get older many times. And yet the people that are tapped into it in its purest form, and they end up being super creative and coming up with like amazing ideas. Our young children, zero to seven is when you're most tapped into the creative imagination because it operates

Starting point is 00:11:51 in what's called the theta brainwave state. But then we get older and we start thinking about the things that we did when we were younger and we go, oh, that was us being childish. And that's the wrong label to put on it. It was, it was, it was you actually acting through our most creative genius that we have. Um, and so to your point, yeah, when we get into those situations, we get so cut up in our own head about worrying about what other people are thinking of us. And all of that thought ends up stopping us from acting through the real abilities that you do have. I mean, I've been doing this for 22 years. I've worked with individuals for over 16,000 hours one-on-one. There is no new objection. There's no new issue. There's no new whatever it might be, a pebble in someone's shoe that I

Starting point is 00:12:42 haven't seen and solved. And I know that human beings place way too much value on what people think of them. And it stops them from taking the actions that they want to take. And an alter ego allows you to create some emotional distance from your own identity. And now that alter ego that you've built can help go out and truly express the real abilities that you've built can help go out and truly express the real abilities that you have. This isn't about being inauthentic and trying to deceive or trick other people. That's not what its purpose is. Its purpose is to actually reveal more of what you are made of. So I'm speaking with Todd Herman about alter egos. Todd's book is called The Alter Ego Effect, The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life.

Starting point is 00:13:27 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.

Starting point is 00:13:52 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

Starting point is 00:14:13 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. Since I host a podcast, Join us and subscribe to Supernatural then and now. 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

Starting point is 00:15:06 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 Todd, I can imagine someone listening to this and interpreting what you're saying as pretending to be someone you're not.

Starting point is 00:15:46 That by doing this alter ego thing, you are putting on this mask and pretending to be someone who isn't you. You're not being authentic. You're pretending. People are already pretending. Let's be honest here, Mike. Everybody, a lot of people are pretending already. Who's the alter ego here? Superman or Clark Kent? Most people, when I've asked that question, they go Superman because they associate

Starting point is 00:16:09 superpowers with the alter ego. No, the alter ego is Clark Kent. The real individual is Superman with all of those superpowers. He puts on the glasses to become the mild-mannered version of himself so that he's accepted by society. And my contention to most people is that most people are walking around as Clark Kent's out there. They're wearing a mask and they're trying to fit in, be accepted. Why? Because it's built into the very biology and development of the human species. Because 10,000 years ago, if we were ever kicked out of the tribe, that means we're probably going to die on the plains kind of thing. And we still have that rooted inside of us, that we were so worried about the tribe kicking us out.

Starting point is 00:16:59 I'm very fortunate because I've worked on the mental game stuff for a long time. I'm also very fortunate because I've been around the most elite human performers on the entire planet in business and in sport. And I can tell you the people who operate at the very top do not live inside the same paradigms that the people in the average middle do. The average middle loves to talk about authenticity. I have never once heard an extraordinarily successful business person that I've worked with or athlete ever concern themselves with being authentic to other people. What they care about is that they're going and doing ambitious things. And the act of doing ambitious things demands that they are constantly bumping up against new comfort zones. And on the other side of that comfort zone is a new identity that they

Starting point is 00:17:38 need to create for themselves or they need to move and shift into. So what we're not doing is showing up as Arnold Schwarzenegger and pumping our chest out when we're 98 pounds and all that kind of stuff. No, it's about what are the traits that he used to help him to evolve into. So he went in with extraordinary discipline and focus. A 98-pound kid can go in with extreme focus and discipline into the gym. You know, what else did he do? He always brought his absolute best to it. He never let what he felt would be his last rep get into his mind and make it his last rep. He always asked himself, there's another rep inside of me. You can do the same thing at 98 pounds. It's not about faking like you're that person. It's about understanding at the root core kind of emotional and mental side of them, what were they bringing to it? So is this all or is this mostly mental? But don't you have to also act the part? If you're going to be this alter ego, don't you have to appear to be this alter ego? It's both.

Starting point is 00:18:47 So there is a psychological principle called enclosed cognition. Enclosed cognition is that human beings attach meaning and story to the clothing that other people wear and that we wear. So a study was done at the Kellogg School of Management where they brought a bunch of students into a room and they got them to do this test where it was an eye test where it had the word of a color, but it was colored differently. So it would be like the word yellow, but it was in orange or the word red, but it was colored in blue. And because our brain sees color before we see the words, it's actually very difficult to say the actual word. And that's actually what the test is, is you got to say the words that you're seeing on this grid. So they brought these students in and they timed them and they tracked how many mistakes they made while they were going through this little test. Okay. So they leave, they bring in another set of students and this time they get them to put on a painter's coat, a white painter's coat, and they get them to do the test. So they're trying to say the word, despite the fact that it's colored in differently, track the test results

Starting point is 00:19:53 and time them. And then they move on and then bring in another group. And this time the group puts on the exact same white coat, but this time they're told it's a lab coat or a doctor's coat. And then they do the test. Well, what are the differences? The people who wore the lab coat or doctor's coat were able to do the test in less than half the time. And they made less than half the mistakes as the other two groups. Why is it? Because the moment that they put on the lab coat or the doctor's coat, they enclosed themselves in the cognitive traits of someone who's detailed, methodical, and careful. All traits that helped them execute that test with success.

Starting point is 00:20:34 But the people who wore the painter's coat, who have now just activated the traits of creativity, expression, and imagination, got the exact same results as the people who were just in their plain clothes. Now, when they gave them a creative test, now all of a sudden the people wearing the painter's coat got better results than the people who were in the doctor's coat. So to your question, does it change the way that you look and feel? Absolutely it can. All of a sudden someone starts walking taller, they feel more confident because they know that they're acting through this more powerful force for themselves. But the more important part of it for me is I'm seeing them change on the inside. I'm seeing them speak more confidently or think

Starting point is 00:21:17 more confidently about themselves. Another great study that was done was at the University of Minnesota, where they brought a bunch of four to six-year-olds into a room, gave them an unsolvable puzzle, and they wanted to see just how long they would stick out this unsolvable puzzle. They were measuring grit and perseverance. So they tracked the information, but the surprising part of it was that they were also able to see how they were talking. And they would say things like, oh, I'm not good at puzzles. I quit. This is too hard. Things like that.

Starting point is 00:21:49 Then after they were all done, they brought in this rack of costumes, Batman and Dora the Explorer costumes specifically. And they got them to pick their favorite one and put it on. Then they brought in another puzzle that again was unsolvable. And this time they stuck with it far longer than they did before. And they would say things like Batman won't quit. So I won't quit.

Starting point is 00:22:10 Dora the Explorer always finds a way. So I'm going to find a way. Probably the greatest takeaway that people can have from this conversation is this. We as human beings always act through whatever we associate ourselves with. And most people have created an identity for themselves that is not a true representation of what their capabilities are because they've been buried under years of conditioning, under negative self-talk, under negative impressions from the outside world, and they think that that's them. And it's not. Were those kids being fake because now all of a sudden they stuck with their puzzles longer? Or were they being fake because now they were thinking more positively about

Starting point is 00:22:56 themselves? Absolutely not. So it would seem that dressing the part would help too, wouldn't it? Martin Luther King did this. Martin Luther King went out and purchased a pair of non-prescription glasses. And he felt like he was carrying such an important mission and movement forward. And he didn't want his insecurities to get in the way of that. So when he was sitting down to put pen to paper for those important speeches that he was writing, he would put on those glasses and activate what he called his distinguished self to say the things that needed to be said in an articulate and charismatic way so that he could move an entire group of people forward with nonviolent action. And, you know, I did the same thing when I was so insecure. I went out, I used a pair of glasses as well to help me

Starting point is 00:23:41 activate, you know, I called it my reverse Superman. I put on a pair of glasses to be more intentional about how I was showing up. And then just like, um, just like Cary Grant said, I ended up becoming the person that I most wanted to be. And what's so interesting is everybody knows that this works because everybody has done it either as a child or yesterday, or everybody's taken on the persona of someone else and acted differently. So we know we can do it, and you've pointed out really well that it can have really positive consequences. My guest has been Todd Herman. He is a performance coach, a mental game strategist,

Starting point is 00:24:20 and author of the book, The Alter Ego Effect, The Power of Secret Identities to Transform Your Life. There's a link to his book in the show notes. Hey, thanks, Todd. Thanks for being here. Thanks, Mike. It's been an absolute pleasure. Appreciate it. 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.

Starting point is 00:24:42 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 listener 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.

Starting point is 00:25:09 New episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. 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.

Starting point is 00:25:54 It's been a little over 50 years since the first moon landing. It was a big deal then, and it's still a big deal. The moon is something we all look up and see all the time. It is so close, astronomically speaking, and yet there is still so much we don't know about it. Dr. Maggie Adarin-Pocock knows more about the moon than anybody I know and probably anybody you know. She is a British space scientist and science educator. She is an honorary research associate in University College of London's Department of Physics and Astronomy and she is author of The Book of the Moon, a guide to our closest neighbor. Hi doctor, welcome to Something You Should Know. Lovely to be here, thank you so much. So tell me a little bit about your fascination with the moon. So my fascination and my passion for the moon

Starting point is 00:26:43 goes back many many years to when I was a child. And I think it started, I always say my formal introduction to the moon came from my father, because he told me about the moon in Africa that he used to see. And I was brought up in London. So in a big city, you don't see many stars or other things, but you can see the moon. So I think my passion stemmed from my father. Well, one of the things that I've always been interested in, the moon as well as the stars, I think about everybody that's gone to school has some basic knowledge about what the moon is. But years ago, centuries ago, millennia ago, people must have looked up and wondered,

Starting point is 00:27:22 what? What did they think when they looked up in the sky and saw this big circle? What did they think that was? Well, this is one of the things I'm fascinated by as well. It's a whole branch of astronomy called archaeoastronomy. So it's looking back in time, and it's a bit of, you know, who knew what when. And the moon features very strongly in that. I mean, people were aware of the solar cycle but the lunar cycle is much is a much smaller time scale it's a monthly cycle which tied in

Starting point is 00:27:53 with people's lives and so great monuments have been made in celebration of the moon um in fact um as soon as recently as 2013, a monument, a lunar monument was found in northern Scotland in an area called Aberdeenshire. And it's a series of 12 pits which represent the different phases of the moon. And they stretch over a 50 kilometre track. And if you look at these phases, they also align with the winter solstice. So it was a way of keeping time. So I think people looked up at the moon and wondered what it is, but they also align with the winter solstice so it was a way of keeping time so i think people looked up at the moon and wondered what it is but they also used it as a calendar and in terms of the one day it takes on so many different forms there were there were lots

Starting point is 00:28:34 of myths and legends about the moon and in australia they talk about the moon sort of coming down to earth and it's um it takes on a male persona and walks amongst us. And he has pet snakes, which he keeps. And so I think different cultures across the world have looked at the moon and tried to make up stories about, you know, why does the phase change? What is happening with the moon? And I love that. So what is the moon? What is it? How did it get there?

Starting point is 00:28:58 Why does it stay there? What is it? We've been trying to understand the moon's origins. And one of the things I like about the moon is that it's still a bit of a mystery. We have theories, but the theories don't completely add up. And I think the strongest theory at the moment is the moon was formed when a planet about the size of Mars collided with a glancing blow with the Earth. And when this humongous collision happened, it threw up debris into the surrounding areas around the Earth. And when this humongous collision happened, it threw up debris into the surrounding areas around the Earth. And this debris slowly but surely coalesced to form the Moon. And when

Starting point is 00:29:33 it did this, the Moon was actually much closer to the Earth. And so this is how we think the Moon was formed. In the past, there were other theories that the early Earth was spinning so fast that a blob of matter from the early Earth spun off. But if that happened, then I think the blob of matter would more likely travel off into space. And another idea was a capture theory. It was a passing asteroid, and it got captured by Earth's gravity. But the Moon is very, very large for that.

Starting point is 00:29:59 So it's one of the largest moons in comparison to its planet in the solar system. So that doesn't quite add up either. And although this idea of fear, the Mars-like planet colliding with the Earth and forming the moon is interesting, one of the problems is when we analyse the moon rocks that we get from sort of missions like Apollo, from the Russian lunar samples, and also from meteorites that land, that come from the moon and land on Earth, if we analyze these rocks, we find that the composition of these rocks is too similar to the Earth's composition. And if it was this collision theory with a glancing blow, we'd expect the moon composition to be fairly different from what we find here on Earth.

Starting point is 00:30:40 And yet they're just too similar. And so you said that when it formed, it was probably closer to the Earth. So how did it get where it is and what keeps it there? Yes. So the moon orbits the Earth. And as it orbits the Earth, what it's actually doing is spiraling away from us. And a few years ago, I was very honoured to visit a telescope in the States called Apache Point. And from here, they send out beams of lasers, photons of light up to the moon. And this light gets reflected from retroreflectors left behind by the people who landed on the moon. And by doing this, you can actually work out the time of flight of this laser beam up to the moon and back again. And by doing this, we're working out that the moon is very slowly but surely moving away from us as it spirals away. And so it's moving at a very

Starting point is 00:31:36 slow rate. It's about sort of 3.5 centimetres a year, which is about the same rate that our fingernails grow. So it's a very, very slow rate. But as it is, it is actually spiraling away from us. And as it spirals away from us, it actually picks up speed. So it used to be much closer. And we can work out that it is spiraling away from us. And it's because of a concept called conservation of angular momentum. So as the moon speeds up and moves away from us, the actual rotation of the Earth slows down because the two are sort of in a combined system.

Starting point is 00:32:09 Now, that's really interesting. I had no idea. I thought the moon was in a stationary orbit to the moon and we haven't been to the moon in a long time and i don't know why we haven't well why haven't we been to the moon in a long time there are lots of theories but i think it is basically the cost it was a major breakthrough it took huge amounts of money it took an amazing advancing technology to get people there and it's quite interesting because if you look at sort of the viewing figures for the sort of the first moon landing, the Apollo 11 landing, I think 20% of the world's population watched that happening. So it was an epic event across the world. But as the subsequent moon landings occurred, people just sort of lost interest. They said, yeah, we've seen it, we've done it. And so to be spending that huge amount

Starting point is 00:33:03 of money on something that people felt was sort of a we almost had it in the bag it didn't make much sense so they reined back on the money and to me it's been as if we've been having a sort of a relationship with the moon and we sort of get all excited about it and then as of um we sort of uh our excitement sort of dies down but now um we're in an interesting time because people, there's a resurgent in sort of moon exploration. So many countries are sending sort of orbiters and landers to the moon because people are seeing that the moon could be of benefit to us in the future. Well, that is a question I think a lot of people have is what is the benefit given the cost? What is the benefit of going to the moon besides the fact that it is an incredible accomplishment to get from here to there

Starting point is 00:33:52 and to put men on the moon? Scientifically, that is pretty amazing. But beyond that, what's the potential? There's the science of the moon. And that's what sort of gets me excited. Because, for instance, we have huge telescopes here on Earth, sort of 8-meter, 10-meter telescopes here on Earth looking out into space. There are some parts of the moon which never see sunlight. They are these caves or craters on the moon's surface where the sun never reaches. So if you could build an optical telescope in one of these craters, it would be able to do astronomy 24-7.

Starting point is 00:34:27 So that would be wonderful in itself. The moon is also sort of littered with meteorites and things that have come from outer space. So it's a goldmine in terms of that. And then in the geology of the moon, understanding another body that isn't Earth in our locale makes a lot of sense as well. But I think if we're going to go back to the moon, it's going to have to be a commercial push to get there. And so I think what people are thinking of is what does the moon have that we don't have here on Earth? And there were many things that come up with that. People talk about fusion as the energy source of

Starting point is 00:35:00 the future, where you take atoms and you put them in high pressures and very high temperatures and fuse them together. And that produces sort of new elements, but it also releases energy. And it's the conversion of Einstein's E equals MC squared equation. You lose some mass in this conversion when atoms are fused together and you create energy. And for a very small amount of mass, you create huge amounts of energy. So it's a very efficient way of doing it. One of the ways we could do fusion is by using a substance called helium-3. And that is, I won't say it's abundant on the moon, but that can be found on the moon. It's one of the things that is given out by the sun.

Starting point is 00:35:41 And because the moon has no atmosphere, it's deposited on the moon. And so it could be mined down in the future another thing is that i mentioned that sort of the moon has a day cycle which is two weeks of daylight and two weeks of night time and so if you put solar panels on the moon you could generate sort of a huge amount of energy we don't the moon just has a very tenuous atmosphere called an exosphere and so sunlight hitting the moon it hits it you know hits it hard and so if you had these solar panels on the moon's surface you could generate uh vast amounts of power being that power back to earth and therefore sort of utilize the moon again in a commercial manner so there were various there were um sort of a rare earth um metals that we are getting harder to get here on Earth, mainly due to where they're found.

Starting point is 00:36:27 But they are available on the moon. And when it becomes cost effective, we might start mining those on the moon's surface. So what is the moon when you if you were standing on the moon and you reached down and picked up moon dirt? And apparently it's not green cheese, as was once thought. What is it? What's the moon made of? Yes, when the moon first formed, it was a hot ball of lava, effectively. And over billions of years, it has cooled down.

Starting point is 00:37:01 And it was also one of the main features of the moon is the craters. Because the moon has no atmosphere, lumps of rock and things like that, debris in space, they smash straight into the moon surface. Here on Earth, because we've got a protective layer around our planet, many things burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. And we see those as shooting stars. So shooting stars are nothing to do with stars. They're just bits of sort of dust and debris burning up in the Earth's atmosphere because they're traveling at such great speeds. They heat up and sort of leave a streak of light. But on the moon, they hit the moon's surface. And so although the moon might have started with a sort of a crust that had cooled

Starting point is 00:37:38 down from this molten state, because it's been pummeled over billions of years by all this detritus from space, it has broken it up into a very, very fine powder. And what's it like if there was an atmosphere? Well, maybe that's not the right question. What's the weather like up there? What's the temperature? What's all that about? Well, one of my dreams is one day to go to the moon's surface and live there. I'd love to be a scientist on dreams is one day to go to the moon's surface and live there i'd love to be a

Starting point is 00:38:05 scientist on the moon one day um and but it would be a very very challenging environment and for one thing because of this lack of atmosphere this exosphere which is just a very very thin atmosphere it means that and during the daytime so you get two weeks of daytime and then the surface is blasted with solar radiation and then the temperature shoots up to about 100 degrees c so that's your sort of that's the temperature we boil water at so it goes up to the temperature of boiling water but then if you're on the dark side of the moon and the night side of the moon then the temperature plummets to nearly minus 200. I'm trying to think what it is in Fahrenheit. My conversion is awful. But it goes down sort of minus 200 degrees C,

Starting point is 00:38:51 which is colder than Antarctica. So you have these extremes of temperature happening every two weeks. There's no atmosphere, so there's no breathable air. And if we look at the footage of the moon landings, we see sort of people moving moving over the surface wearing the bulky spacesuits that's to protect them from the sort of the solar radiation itself from the extreme temperatures and to provide an environment for their bodies to sit in because there's no atmosphere actually on the moon and so there's all these sort of various challenges that we would face if we actually went to the moon. But it's a challenge I'd love to take. So weigh in from a scientific point of view on this idea that, you know, when there's a full moon, people's behavior changes, crime goes up, crazy behavior goes up. What do you say?

Starting point is 00:39:41 Research has shown that some people think there is a correlation and some people think that there isn't a correlation. And so we have papers actually describing both effects. And I think this is the problem. It's very hard to get unbiased data. So, for instance, in the UK, the police in a certain borough of a certain county of the UK near a town called Brighton, put more police on the beat during the times of a full moon because their statistical analysis showed that more crime or more incidents happened during the time of the full moon. But I think it is a psychological problem because I think when the moon is full and something happens,

Starting point is 00:40:23 people go out and tell other people about it and they see it as significant. But when something significant happens and it's not a full moon, because they're not making that correlation, I don't think they talk about it so much. So I think there's a psychology behind it where it's hard to get pure data. But the Luna in the word lunatic refers to the moon, correct? Oh, correct. And that's why I call myself a self-certified lunatic, because I am, I believe, under the influence of the moon. When I see the moon, I am totally mesmerized. I gaze at it with a joy in my heart. So I think the term lunatic came, I think it was from the Greeks who sort of saw the moon and felt that the moon did actually have an influence on people and made it a negative influence. And if you go back in time, though, before the time of electric lights and things like that, you could see that perhaps at the time of the full moon, perhaps that's the time where people might commit crimes or that's a time where people might observe crimes because there's more light uh and so perhaps there was a correlation there and in africa it said that um there seemed to be more lion attacks at the time of a full moon

Starting point is 00:41:34 and but then again that correlation could come from that um animals at the time of the full moon sort of are more likely to hide away because of the extra light, whereas humans might go out more because of the extra light and therefore are more likely to be attacked. So I think with all these correlations, it's very hard to get to the pure data and take out all the extenuating circumstances. Lastly, any one thing about the moon that is particularly fascinating to you that perhaps most people don't know? I do believe we take the moon for granted. And when you that perhaps most people don't know? I do believe we take the moon for granted. And when you sort of speak to people about the moon, they say, oh, yes, yes, well, we know about the tides. But the moon does so much more.

Starting point is 00:42:16 One of the things it did is it enabled, with the tides, it enabled the precursors of DNA to be formed here on Earth, we believe. And so because of the movement of the tides, it washed chemicals in and out of the tidal pools. And then those tidal pools got irradiated by sunlight and UV light. And if you repeat that experiment in a lab, you can actually create something called RNA, which is the precursor to DNA. So the moon might actually be responsible for life here on Earth. Well, clearly you have a love affair with the moon. I do.

Starting point is 00:42:54 But it's fun to hear. I enjoy listening to you talk about it with the passion you have for it. Dr. Maggie Adarin-Pocock has been my guest. She's a British space scientist and author of the book, The Book of the Moon, A Guide to Our Closest Neighbor. There's a link to her book in the show notes. Thank you, doctor. So nice to have you join me. Oh, thank you so much. You need to drink more water.

Starting point is 00:43:21 You've heard that all your life. But why is water so important? Because drinking it does a lot of things. It helps rid the body of waste and toxins, it transports oxygen and nutrients to muscles, and it protects every organ in your body. So how much water should you drink? Well, a rule of thumb is to take your body weight in pounds and divide it in half.

Starting point is 00:43:45 That's approximately how many ounces of water or fluid you should consume a day. And since plain water can be boring, you should think of alternatives to stay hydrated. Some beverages can hydrate us faster than others, and this is known as the hydration index. For example, milk has a higher hydration index compared to, say, coffee or tea. And that is something you should know. You know, ratings and reviews, they're like the lifeblood of podcasts. We need them. So please leave a rating and review for this podcast.

Starting point is 00:44:22 I'm Micah Ruthers. 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

Starting point is 00:44:52 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.

Starting point is 00:45:11 Starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Jennifer, a 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 Lining, a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla

Starting point is 00:45:38 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.

Something You Should Know - SYSK Choice: The Power of an Alter Ego & Fascinating Moon Facts

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