Something You Should Know - What Marketers Can Tell From The Sound of Your Voice & What It Means to Be Healthy

Starting point is 00:00:00 The search for truth never ends. Introducing June's Journey, a hidden object mobile game with a captivating story. Connect with friends, explore the roaring 20s, and enjoy thrilling activities and challenges while supporting environmental causes. After seven years, the adventure continues with our immersive travels feature. Explore distant cultures and engage in exciting experiences. There's always something new to discover. Are you ready?

Starting point is 00:00:27 Download June's Journey now on Android or iOS. Today on Something You Should Know, how washing your hands can change your whole outlook on life. Then, how marketers can tell all sorts of things about you just from your voice. And they're listening. I've spoken to scientists who will say that you can tell from the human voice how tall a person is, how heavy a person is,

Starting point is 00:00:53 ethnicity and race. Supposedly, you can even tell whether a woman is on birth control. Also, one simple thing that can improve the quality of your sleep tonight. And you can be healthy even if you're sick. It's all about how you adapt to circumstances. Data from around the world have shown consistently that around 75 to 86 percent of people with a single disease, such as diabetes or arthritis, they consider their own health to be positive. And so do 50 percent of people who live with three diseases. All this today on Something You Should Know. This winter, take a trip to Tampa on Porter Airlines. Enjoy the warm Tampa Bay temperatures

Starting point is 00:01:38 and warm Porter hospitality on your way there. All Porter fares include beer, wine, and snacks, and free fast streaming Wi-Fi on planes with no middle seats. And your Tampa Bay vacation includes good times, relaxation, and great Gulf Coast weather. Visit flyporter.com and actually enjoy economy. 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 hope you're having a spectacular day. But if you're not, if you're having a crappy day, if nothing is going right, I have a really good suggestion for you. And that is to wash your hands. It can actually make a difference and break

Starting point is 00:02:35 a streak of bad luck. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that people who wash their hands for a full minute after making a mistake or experiencing some bad luck significantly increased their success rates. Washing your hands seems to send a subconscious message to the brain that you're ready to start over. Those in the experiment who washed their hands were then more likely to take chances now that they had clean hands, which increased their odds of good fortune.

Starting point is 00:03:10 And that is something you should know. What if it were possible for someone to listen to you talk, to your voice, and be able to tell just by the sound of your voice how old you are, how much you weigh, what your interests are, what your temperament is, and then use that information for whatever they want, to try to sell you things or whatever. I know, it sounds weird, doesn't it? But it won't sound weird after you hear my guest, Joseph Turow, talk about it. Joseph is a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.

Starting point is 00:03:52 He's the author of several books, including The Voice Catchers, How Marketers Listen In to Exploit Your Feelings, Your Privacy, and Your Wallet. Hey, Joseph, welcome to Something You Should Know. Thank you. Glad to be here. So explain what this whole voice intelligence business is because I've never heard of it. Basically it's the idea that increasingly there are companies that are interested in using the human voice as ways to monetize behavior. And some are doing it already. Some are planning to do it.

Starting point is 00:04:28 But I think we ought to think of this as an emerging industry that's part of an even larger dynamic or development. And that has to do with the biometrics that is using our bodies as information. So give me an example of this voice technology in action.

Starting point is 00:04:49 Okay. The most clear example is in the 800 number business, the contact center business. If you call an 800 number today, there's a decent chance that what will happen is the company will have software that interrogates your voice. It will listen to your voice and try to figure out whether you're angry, sad, happy. And based upon the emotion that it infers from your voice and also maybe connections to the history of your purchases, it may well triage you to a person, an agent, who's good at dealing with people with that

Starting point is 00:05:33 sense of emotions, who are good at upselling people, making them feel more comfortable, essentially making them feel that they are the right people to deal with. Really? So there is software that can tell whether just by listening to the sound of my voice, what I'm feeling, what my mood is. That is the claim. I've spoken to scientists who will say that voice is an incredibly accurate sort of incursion into the human body that you can tell from the human voice how tall a person is, how heavy a person is, ethnicity and race. Supposedly, you can even tell whether a woman is on birth control after about 30 days. Okay, but you've used phrases like that's the claim and supposedly it's either true

Starting point is 00:06:30 or it isn't. This stuff either exists or it doesn't. So do we know? Well, not necessarily. Everything is, if marketers believe it and they act on it, it doesn't matter if it's quote unquote true, right? I mean, if I believe that listening to your voice means that you have a certain kind of approach to the world and I act on it as a marketer,

Starting point is 00:06:53 what's the difference if it's quote unquote true or not? I acted as if it's true. I gave you a discount or I sent you to a person who supposedly can deal with you in a better way. Scientists who've studied this stuff for decades really do believe that it's scientifically accurate to say that they can tell if a person is tall or short by listening to their voice. I'm not a scientist, but that's the claim. There's so many claims in life that we accept and marketers are constantly constructing the world for us. So, yeah, I don't know if you've heard of the Halo. The Halo is like a Fit can tell how you sound to other people as you move through the day. So it says, for example, we can tell you how you're going to sound to your boss,

Starting point is 00:07:54 how you're going to sound to your wife, how you're going to sound to your spouse, whatever it is, how you're going to sound to your kids. And that is a claim. Can I verify it? No. I actually got one from my wife to try it out. And she was, you know, freaked out about it, creeped out about it, maybe the better word, and decided not to use it after a bit. But the claim is that your life will be better, your health life will be better because you know how you sound to other people. And so what is your position on this? Is this a good thing, a bad thing, or it just is? No, my position is that it's a bad thing. I think that the idea of interrogating people's bodies is something that marketers are moving into increasingly. You know, there are so many companies that are using demographics,

Starting point is 00:08:46 psychographics, lifestyle, internet behavior, that the new kind of thing is thinking about the body, like with face and with voice, and down the line with perhaps other areas of body. And yeah, I think that that is a really bad set of news for us that there ought to be a red line, in fact, and it should be prohibited, actually. Because why? What's the potential harm? The idea here is that it can lead to discrimination and, in fact, probably already has. And it can cause – there are two issues. One is what does it do in marketing?

Starting point is 00:09:28 And the second is what does it do for the rest of society beyond marketing? In marketing, being able to codify a person or discriminate against a person based upon how sheer he sounds is something that I'm not sure we as a society want. I mean, you call up a restaurant, for example, and you sound a fancy restaurant, and you sound like you're a nothing, okay? And the voice program says, this person doesn't belong in our restaurant. They might put you on a wait list that's quite long. If a company feels that you are heavy or that you are pregnant or that you are sick because of your voice, they may treat you differently from someone

Starting point is 00:10:16 who believes that they believe are different. But there's a second issue, which is what I call the hidden curriculum. Once people get used to using the categories, used to the idea that marketers and marketing can use categories about us throughout society, they begin to accept it as normal. And so it wouldn't be surprising if, say, 15, 20 years from now, people accept the idea that you can do political campaigning based on a person's voice, that you can allow the government to translate a person's voice into something that they can make sense of. So the whole idea that biometrics and the management of people's bodies based on interpretation like that is, I would argue, a pretty dangerous line. Yeah, well, you make a good case.

Starting point is 00:11:09 But what I don't get, because again, what I said before, you said supposedly and the claim is, if it works for something like height or weight, that's very testable. It either works or it doesn't, because you can test that. So it does or it doesn't. And in fact, scientists say that it works. It either works or it doesn't because you can test that. So it does or it doesn't. In fact, scientists say that it works. Well, but when they do, they just say it or they can prove it. They prove their experiments.

Starting point is 00:11:35 People have been doing this stuff for decades. They can prove it. They they actually have done. Rita Singh, S-I-N-G-H, up at Carnegie Mellon, who was kind enough to give me her very academic book about the science of voice before it came out as I was writing my book. And I read around the formulas. And Rita shows that this stuff has a lot of backing. From a scientific standpoint, there is a lot to believe that a voice can be the portal into your body. Well, this is just weird. And I have some more questions. I'm speaking with Joseph Turow.

Starting point is 00:12:17 He is author of the book, The Voice Catchers, how marketers listen to exploit your feelings, your privacy, and your wallet. At Wealthsimple, we're built for whatever you're building. Built for Jane, who wants to break into the housing market. We're built for Ted, who's obsessed with what's happening in the global markets. And built for Celine, who just wants to retire and explore the world's flea markets. So take a moment and think about what you're building for. We've got the financial tools to help make it happen.

Starting point is 00:12:48 Wealthsimple, built for possibilities. Visit wealthsimple.com slash possibilities. This is an ad for better help. Welcome to the world. Please read your personal owner's manual thoroughly. In it, you'll find simple instructions for how to interact with your fellow human beings and how to find happiness and peace of mind. Thank you and have a nice life.

Starting point is 00:13:10 Unfortunately, life doesn't come with an owner's manual. That's why there's BetterHelp Online Therapy. Connect with a credentialed therapist by phone, video, or online chat. Visit betterhelp.com to learn more. That's BetterHelp.com. So, Joseph, how widespread is the use of this stuff now? Is it probably more widespread than we think it is? It's widespread within the contact center business. It exists in our smart speaker systems, but Amazon and Google have not really pushed it very far. But for example, if you have a smart speaker and you live with someone, it can tell the difference between you and your person who lives with you by creating a voice print. It knows, for example, in my house who I am. That's based on a voice print. It can go farther if it wants to. And Amazon has a patent where they actually illustrate this. A woman comes into

Starting point is 00:14:14 her house or apartment and says, Alexa, I'm hungry. Give me a recipe. What should I eat for dinner? And Alexa says, you sound like you have a cold. Would you like a recipe for chicken soup? And the woman says, not really. So Alexa says, okay, how about some aspirin? I can have it delivered within one hour. And the woman says, that's terrific. Thank you, Alexa. This is clearly a direction that these companies see themselves possibly going. Right now, I think they're worried about the pushing back, you know, companies pushing back. But major firms have integrated the possibility of using your voice into their privacy policies. I looked at the Bank of America privacy policy. And Bank of America has an assistant called Erica. And Erica is, you know, you talk to her like you talk to Siri and stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:15:14 I looked and there was nothing in the privacy policy when I was starting to write the book about voice. By the time I finished the book and I was, you know, going through the final manuscript, I figured I better check that. I went back to the website, and in fact, in the privacy policy, they had added the right to use your voice. determine what kind of music you might like. There was a whole petition circulated a year and a half ago or so, maybe two years ago, which I was party to, which tried to say to Spotify, don't use this patent. It treads on people's privacy. And Spotify said, we're not using it now, but we don't want to say that we'll never use it. and we don't want to say that we'll never sell it. So there are emerging issues here. So as you're talking and giving these examples, I mean, some of them sound pretty benign. Some of them even sound preferable. I mean, if Alexa couldn't tell the difference between voices in a house full of people that could get annoying it's nice that she can and if you're sick and Alexa wants to send you some chicken soup or

Starting point is 00:16:30 some aspirin it's hard to see the harm in that yeah but that's the tip of an iceberg the point is once it can do that it can do a lot of other things and do you really want and you want a company to know how often you get sick? I mean, think about it. It's not just one time. Given that Amazon owns a pharmacy company, they can determine what kind of sicknesses you get, how often you get sick, and use that for their own purposes and maybe for the purposes of marketing you to other companies. It's the same thing with supermarkets. We think that, gee, it's just a frequent shopper card. What's the difference if they find out when I'm buying bread or Coca-Cola or something?

Starting point is 00:17:19 But if you use AI, in my mind, there is no distinction between sensitive and non-sensitive data. I could, if you look at what a person's basket is of purchases over the course, say, of a month, you can find out enormous things about that person and their family, their health problems, their proclivities in eating, whether they're going to be fat when they're older or not. So many things that could impact the way marketers and other entities in society treat them. Has there, do you know, been any sort of legal challenge or legal clarification on do you own your voice and people can't do with it as they, whatever they please? Well, the main discussions have been around privacy policies that don't tell people that companies are taking their voice.

Starting point is 00:18:16 So Illinois has something called the BIPA, biometric internet information, I guess, privacy policy. And there have been class action suits around companies not telling people adequately or at all that their voices are being used, okay, or their faces are being used. But once, if you accept that or don't opt out, in the United States, opt out is the dominant way of doing things, with the exception of a few states that require for biometrics opt-in. But once you give your permission, companies can use it for just about anything. For the longest time, the conversation about protecting your data really revolved around identity theft.

Starting point is 00:19:06 The concern was that you needed to protect your data so people couldn't steal your identity and use your credit cards and all that. But what you're talking about is different than that, because so much of this isn't necessarily that you can track it back to an individual person and the name of that person is this and their social security number is this. That's not really necessarily what this is, right? Well, let's unpack what you just said. The idea of can't track it back to me implies non-anonymous.

Starting point is 00:19:43 Is that what you mean? That is, they don't know it's Joseph Turo? Is that what you're saying? Exactly. They know it's somebody, but they don't know it's you that lives at this address and this is your phone number and this is what you look like.

Starting point is 00:19:55 Okay. But identity is far more in our digital world than this address that's a physical address. Companies have gotten very good at learning about us in the digital life. And the kinds of discriminatory activities that I was referring to earlier can take place on the digital battlefield of life, as well as on the physical battlefield of life. And sometimes there's no difference. So, for example, I have a book called The Isles Have Eyes. The Isles Have Eyes.

Starting point is 00:20:28 If you go into Target or Kroger, they can follow you around through the aisles. As long as you have your phone on to a certain app, okay, and they can give you certain discounts or not give you discounts or talk to you in certain ways rather than other ways and treat you like, you know, like a person who's desirable or not. Now, in many cases, they know who you are. But in some cases, you're just a person with an ID. But that ID is trackable across so many devices that essentially you're a persistent person with a number. And that persistence allows them to discriminate in ways that are almost like as if they know you as a person.

Starting point is 00:21:15 When I hear this, I mean, that to me is just so fascinating and such a good response to my question. But when I hear about stuff like this, doesn't it just seem that this is inevitable, that this will just happen the way so much of this other stuff has just crept in? And as you say, you have to opt out in most cases. So if somebody comes up with it and inaugurates it and you don't opt out, boom, you're in. I don't disagree. And in fact, this is at the heart of a lot of discussions at the Federal Trade Commission and elsewhere now about complicated topics like third-party cookies and the tracking of people across different devices. I don't think many of your listeners know, for example, that your television set, if you have a Samsung or an LG or a Vizio TV set, it can watch what you're watching.

Starting point is 00:22:10 And even can send you ads on your phone next to you or your tablet next to you based on what you're watching. And we did a study, if people are interested, that came out about a week and a half ago and was written up in the New York Times about the whole issue of consent. And one of the things we were, we meaning I and two other and three other colleagues, it was based on a national survey. And we found that A, Americans are totally ignorant when it comes to basic understanding of the practices of companies that do online marketing. And B, Americans are unbelievably resigned to all of this happening. By resigned, we mean that people would like to have their control over their data and believe that they can't. And we found that about 83% of Americans are resigned that way. And not only that, about 70 something, I think it was 73 or 74%,

Starting point is 00:23:14 are not only just resigned, they believe that what companies know about them can harm them. But until you address that mass resignation that people have about this, to me, that's the weak link in the chain. If people just are, oh, well, that's just the way it is, there's no stopping it. I totally agree. There's only two answers to that. One is legislators have to take the initiative. And we argued this in the report that I just discussed by getting rid of a lot of the ability to do this kind of work. But secondly, we have to make people angry rather than resign. Resignation is not good for society. movie network, where people got up and said, you know, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. We aren't in that situation with the internet. People are resigned. They're not angry.

Starting point is 00:24:13 Well, I think people are resigned because they don't know what the options are. I mean, you can be mad as hell and not take it anymore. But what does that mean? I mean, how do you fight back? But I guess step one of fighting back is to understand what's going on. I've been talking to Joseph Turow. He is a professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication,

Starting point is 00:24:35 and he's author of the book, The Voice Catchers, How Marketers Listen to Exploit Your Feelings, Your Privacy, and Your Wallet. And you'll find a link to that book in the show notes. Thanks, Joseph. Thanks for coming on. Thanks, Mike. It's been a pleasure. Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations.

Starting point is 00:24:53 Hey. No, too basic. Hi there. Still no. What about hello, handsome? Who knew you could give yourself the ick? That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations. You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be automatically sent to your matches.

Starting point is 00:25:14 Then sit back and let your matches start the chat. Download Bumble and try it for yourself. 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.

Starting point is 00:25:47 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. Human beings have the ability to adapt.

Starting point is 00:26:29 Of course, so do most other creatures. We all adapt. That is how we survive. If we don't adapt, we don't survive. When we're faced with a health challenge, we adapt to it. As we age, we adapt to that. But actually, our ability to adapt is more than just about survival, in a really interesting way that you may have never thought about or considered. But you're about to. Tamin Haddad-Garcia is co-author of a book called Healthy No Matter

Starting point is 00:26:59 What, How Humans Are Hardwired to Adapt, which she co-wrote with her father, Alex, who is a medical doctor. Hi, Tamin. Welcome to Something You Should Know. Hi. Really happy to be here. Love the show. Thank you. So explain, just in broad strokes to start here, what you mean about our health and how we adapt. So we have a flawed understanding and a harmful understanding of our health. We sometimes associate health as being the absence of disease, but it's actually an ability, right? Rather than it being a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being,

Starting point is 00:27:38 like the absence of disease, we can see health as the ability to adapt to the inevitable challenges of life. For example, data from around the world have shown consistently that around 75% to 86% of people with a single disease, such as diabetes or arthritis, they consider their own health to be positive. And so do 50% of people who live with three diseases, right? So if we focus on the ability to adapt as our understanding of health, then we can live a healthier and longer life no matter what, really. So you know what I thought you were going to say was people with diseases like diabetes identify themselves with their disease, like they're a diabetic. That's what I thought you were going to say, rather than what you just said, which is more or less the opposite. Yeah. And I mean, that's, what's really interesting with this perspective of health is that when you separate health from your disease

Starting point is 00:28:36 and you focus it more on your ability to assess it, that's where there's so many opportunities to thrive. And I mentioned positive, like rate their health as positive. And the reason why I'm saying that is because you can ask people how they rate their health. And that is a super powerful question. It has a predictive power, like an internal sense of what's happening in your body and the world around it. It's like a sensitive barometer, and it can actually be more sophisticated than many clinical tests. So you're not necessarily your disease. Like, sure, you can have that disease, but you can still be healthy.

Starting point is 00:29:16 And one way to assess your health and the best way of doing it is by asking the question of self-rated health, self-reported health. So the question is very simple. In general, how would you rate your health? Excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor? I mean, you can answer now if you would want even. And I mean, I would invite the listeners to do the same thing. And essentially, you can divide the answers, like the answers have different implications. If you answer excellent, very good, or good, that's considered positive. So that's what I was talking about before that people can have these diseases and maybe identify themselves with these diseases, or the healthcare system can say that they're ill, but they can still say that

Starting point is 00:30:05 their health is excellent, very good or good. But then at the same time, there's the group of fair or poor. And this is what we call negative health. And rating your own health as negative can actually indicate that you have a triple higher risk of dying earlier than your peers who say that their health is positive. And I mean, it's really shocking that there's actually evidence from a study from 2022, from the US that showed that people who rate their own health as poor are likely to live 23 years less than those who consider their health is excellent. So it's really important to remember that you have a lot of power in terms of understanding your health and rating your health and that that actually matters a lot.

Starting point is 00:30:53 And it's separate from whether you have a disease or not. And so what's the magic? What does rating your own health in a positive way? What does how does that translate into longer health? It can't be magic, so what is it? For sure. Yeah. So essentially, it goes down to the message of you feel more than you know, to an extent. We have all these mechanisms inside of ourselves that are able to, studies have shown that this question is actually related to many biomarkers, such as cortisol and lipids, so fat in your blood that can signal other illnesses that you need to pay attention to. So negative health is actually associated with those things. So you being able to feel this is actually a really fine-tuned barometer that we can actually tap into. So it helps because it can also

Starting point is 00:31:47 signal to you whether you should seek support or not. So if you're feeling a little bit off, or if you're experiencing a challenge, you can pull out that question and evaluate yourself. You're like, how do I rate my health right now? And if you're rating it as negative, that's probably a good reason to seek out some support, right? And sometimes the intervention could be medical and in others, it should actually be social, spiritual, or even emotional support. What if you're wrong? What if you're deluding yourself and thinking your health is great when it really isn't? It's almost like asking yourself, do you like this restaurant or did you enjoy this restaurant or how would you rate this restaurant?

Starting point is 00:32:33 You wouldn't say that your rating is wrong, right? It's your evaluation. It's your sensation. It's up to you to decide whether you would rate it as such or not, right? And sometimes people bring up the question like, well, what if your doctor tells you you're not healthy? This is where we bring up the point that making a decision with your healthcare professional is really important, that it's important to take into consideration what your healthcare professionals and what people around you are telling you. But at the same time, you need to decide what role and how much of a role you play in your health.

Starting point is 00:33:11 There's actually a really significant association between levels of positive health and active involvement in the decision-making process regarding your health. So you can't actually be wrong, but you should definitely pay attention to what your healthcare providers are saying and play an active role in what you do after that. When I think of my health, it isn't a constant. Sometimes I'm healthy, sometimes I've been quite sick. It's not like, and if I were to ask myself your question at that time, I would rate my health negatively because I'm quite sick and other times I'm feeling great. And we've actually asked this to millions of people. And so we've asked them this

Starting point is 00:33:58 question. And then we have a couple follow-up questions that have been really illuminating. And the first question that you should ask after you assess your health is, why do you consider your health to be at that level? Right? And many times when you're sick, your answer could actually be, well, I don't consider myself to have very positive health right now because my energy levels are low or because I have a headache or because, you know, it could be for more specific reasons. And then the follow-up question is, what do you need to do to maintain or improve your level of health, right? So from then, you can start to, that starts to help to parse out what are the actual challenges, what is actually making you rate your

Starting point is 00:34:45 health as poor or fair, so that you can then take steps to improve that, right? And it does fluctuate, as you're saying. What about people, if this ever happens, what about people who are not healthy, but claim they are, who believe they are, but aren't. And it's actually really interesting because healthy is really a judgment for yourself, right? You can have diseases, but still feel healthy. Data from around the world have shown consistently, actually, that around 75 to 86% of people with a single disease, like diabetes or arthritis, actually consider their health to be positive. And actually, so do 50% of people with three diseases. So saying that somebody is healthy or not is not really something that we should say, but it's more something that everybody needs

Starting point is 00:35:42 to decide for themselves. And that's a really important finding and life-saving insight that we should take with ourselves on a daily basis. Well, I don't want to beat this to death, but you could say you're healthy and smoke a pack of cigarettes and drink a quart of scotch and lay around the house eating bonbons all day. You're not really healthy. I mean, there's not too many people that would agree with you that that's a healthy way to live, but you could say you are, you could believe you are. Well, that's the thing. Health, if we understand it as the ability to adapt to the inevitable challenges that life presents us,

Starting point is 00:36:22 if they're adapting to the challenges, and if they're able to feel that they feel healthy, then that's up to them, right? Because if we focus it on solely disease or biomarkers, then most of us would actually be ill, right? So you could have somebody who runs Ironman, and who trains for every single athletic competition and his peak performance and eats incredibly well, sleeps well, has low stress, but they wear glasses. That would then deem them as ill, right? Because they have an eye condition. How can we say that somebody who has glasses, right, is healthy, but somebody who has an unhealthy or harmful behavior is not healthy? So I probably should have asked you this earlier on, but how do you know this? Is this a theory?

Starting point is 00:37:21 Is there research? Who did the research? How do we know that your foundation here is real science? There is the definition of health that was put forth by the WHO, which has been the main definition of health for decades, which is health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. And this is clearly false, right? Then none of us could be healthy based off of this premise, right? If you have cavities, if you wear glasses, if you're a little bit stressed, if you need to go to the bathroom, you're no longer healthy. You can't be healthy so alex uh dr haddad my co-author he challenged this definition and put out a call to redefine and reconceptualize health with the

Starting point is 00:38:14 british medical journal and he gathered the best minds the top experts the top academics and scientists and communities around the world to challenge this definition and propose a new one. And that's this one. And this is the one that has been, that is being championed and that's being pushed more and more so that we can actually be healthy, something that's a definition that is helpful to us rather than already setting ourselves up for failure. So that definition is the ability to adapt to the inevitable challenges that life presents us, right? So with this perspective, if you have an eye condition and you're not able to see far or near, but you wear glasses, you can then be healthy, right? Or if you have cancer and you are dealing with the symptoms or you're getting

Starting point is 00:39:07 treatment and you're keeping up with everything that your physician is telling you to do and you're staying active and eating well, you can still be healthy within your constraints. So that's what this definition of health does and why this new perspective that is backed by many scientists academics and institutions around the world like why that is the one that we should actually embrace how much of this though could be if you believe you're healthy you're probably going to live a life that promotes that that as opposed to believing you're unhealthy and you're kind of powerless. And so you would lead a life that, well, I don't care anymore, kind of. And so, and the results are the results of that. You know, if you lead a healthy lifestyle, you're more apt to be healthy.

Starting point is 00:39:58 You're absolutely spot on. And that's, that's essentially thanks to something we have, which is like self-perception, right? And our ability to perceive our behaviors and then interpret who we are from that, right? And it's kind of a feedback loop essentially. So if we believe we're healthy and if we identify ourselves as healthy, then we make more healthy choices and we behave healthier. But what's beautiful is that a lot of studies show that the opposite is true too. If you behave healthier and you make choices that are healthier and you just act like a healthy person, essentially, you start to believe yourself as being a healthy person. And the whole, the role of the mind is actually massive in this sense, right? And this

Starting point is 00:40:46 this sense of optimism, which is really what you're kind of talking about here. And study after study has shown that that actually has big benefits when it comes to dealing with diseases. For example, a longitudinal study on 22,000 Americans found that optimism actually has protective benefits against stroke. So there are many things that how our mind and how we perceive ourselves and how we perceive what's possible can actually shape our health outcomes. This is really interesting because, you know, people don't, I guess, don't really stop and think, am I healthy or am I unhealthy? And yet some of those definitions that you gave, well, you're never 100% healthy. It's kind of the way you look at the world.

Starting point is 00:41:36 It's kind of the way you look at your place in the world and the challenges you have and how you adapt to those challenges that determines a lot. Absolutely. Absolutely. And it's exactly that. It's if you feel that you are able to overcome these challenges, this is a huge role in feeling healthy. And precisely when we did a study on millions of people, we actually asked them why they rate their health as positive. And the top five reasons that they gave us was having a good mood or feeling good, having a strong family life and support from loved ones, being physically fit, enjoying a rich spiritual life with meaning and purpose purpose and the absence of symptoms or diseases.

Starting point is 00:42:26 So those were the top five reasons. And it's really interesting how most of them don't have to do with illnesses, right? It's about your outlook on life. It's about what you have around you that can help you be healthy, right? And when we ask people what they need to maintain their health as such, it's also beautiful to see that a lot of it is actually within our control, right? And a lot of it is actually within our surroundings, right? Most people say that they just need support to increase their levels of physical activity, right?

Starting point is 00:43:08 Or change their dietary habits, deal with family issues, improve their financial situations, and handle some difficulties at work. So it was really beautiful to see how our conversation of health, when we focus on it as an ability to adapt to challenges, we start to go wider than expected, beyond the medical system, and start to see our work, money, families, our mood, our sense of purpose, to start playing a role in our health, rather than fixating on diseases.

Starting point is 00:43:52 Well, as I listen to you talk, I think too, like, for example, if you're an able-bodied person, as I am, and you see somebody in a wheelchair, you instantly identify that person as disabled, handicapped, they're in a wheelchair. And I think you kind of make the assumption that that's how they think too. And yet what you're saying is there's a pretty good chance if you were to ask that person, they don't identify themselves and think of themselves as a handicapped person stuck in a wheelchair. That's just something they've had to adapt to. And otherwise, they might be just consider themselves fine. That's exactly it. That's absolutely it. Because if you replace a wheelchair for glasses,

Starting point is 00:44:34 that's essentially the same thing for them. They've now been able to adapt. They can now live life well, they've overcome that challenge and now they're able to thrive. A study in Australia showed that two-thirds of patients with cancer that had spread to different parts of their bodies still assessed their health as positive, even when they knew that their disease was incurable. We have so many things around us that can help us feel better and can help us push through our challenges and still live as fully as possible. Well, it's such a hopeful message, and it has been proven time and time again, that

Starting point is 00:45:17 we have the ability to adapt to circumstances, to health challenges, to whatever life throws our way, and adapt to it and continue to thrive. And it's a very optimistic and powerful message. You're absolutely right. And we can really be astounded by how much we can handle and thrive through. I've been speaking with Taman Haddad Garcia, who along with her father, Dr. Alex Haddad, have written a book called Healthy No Matter What, How Humans Are Hardwired to Adapt, and there is a link to that book in the show notes. If you're having trouble sleeping or you would just like to sleep better, you might try taking a walk. Researchers at the University of Arizona

Starting point is 00:46:05 say those of us who walk every day sleep better at night. Try for at least the equivalent of six city blocks. Three blocks out, three blocks back. That six block distance could add 15 to 60 minutes to your deep sleep cycle. Walking reduces stress and will lessen any anxiety or restlessness that prevents you from getting to or staying in that valuable deep sleep mode. So, if you want to sleep, take a walk. And that is something you should know. If there is anyone in your life, anyone you know, who you think would enjoy this podcast as much as you do,

Starting point is 00:46:44 I hope you will pass along the information and suggest they listen. I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Hey, hey, are you ready for some real talk and some fantastic laughs? Join me, Megan Rinks. And me, Melissa Demonts, for Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? We're serving up for hilarious shows every week designed to entertain and engage and, you know, possibly enrage you.

Starting point is 00:47:09 In Don't Blame Me, we dive deep into listeners' questions, offering advice that's funny, relatable, and real. Whether you're dealing with relationship drama or you just need a friend's perspective, we've got you. Then switch gears with But Am I Wrong?, which is for listeners who didn't take our advice and want to know if they are the villains in the situation. Plus, we share our hot takes on current events and present situations that we might even be wrong in our lives. Spoiler alert, we are actually

Starting point is 00:47:34 quite literally never wrong. But wait, there's more. Check out See You Next Tuesday, where we reveal the juicy results from our listener polls from But Am I Wrong. And don't miss Fisting Friday, where we catch up, chat about pop culture, TV, and movies. It's the perfect way to kick off your weekend. So if you're looking for a podcast that feels like a chat with your besties, listen to Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Starting point is 00:47:58 New episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. 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

Starting point is 00:48:30 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.

Something You Should Know - What Marketers Can Tell From The Sound of Your Voice & What It Means to Be Healthy

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.