Something You Should Know
The Science of Recognizing Faces & The Rules to Clearer Thinking-SYSK Choice
17 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: How can the environment influence the way we taste food?
Today on Something You Should Know, how the environment where you eat can affect the way your food tastes. Then, the science of how we recognize faces. Some of us are really good at it, and some are totally face blind.
Somebody who's profoundly face blind sends their kid to daycare in the morning in one outfit, and their kid, as kids do, needs a change of clothing. That parent might not be able to recognize their kid at pickup.
Also, is it true some people can drink coffee right before bed and be completely unaffected by it? And how to set rules to think more clearly and accomplish what's important?
How can we create automatic rules? I work out every day.
Chapter 2: What is the science behind recognizing faces?
I have no meetings till 12. I invest in an index fund every month. To come up with them, just ask yourself, what would the person who accomplishes what I want to accomplish, what would their life look like, and how do I set rules around this?
Chapter 3: How do some people become super recognizers of faces?
All this today on Something You Should Know.
Ah, the Regency era. You might know it as the time when Bridgerton takes place, or as the time when Jane Austen wrote her books. The Regency era was also an explosive time of social change, sex scandals, and maybe the worst king in British history. Vulgar History's new season is all about the Regency era, the balls, the gowns, and all the scandal.
Chapter 4: What challenges do face-blind individuals face in daily life?
Listen to Vulgar History, Regency era, wherever you get 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 there, and welcome to Something You Should Know. Since we all eat food, I've always been interested in all the things that affect how we enjoy our food. And there's a guy named Charles Spence. He's an experimental psychologist at Oxford University. He has spent his career studying how environment affects the way we experience food.
Chapter 5: How can we improve our decision-making skills?
So, for example, the weight and color of the utensils you use can affect how sweet or salty a food tastes. And people tend to enjoy the same dish more if it has a longer and more descriptive name. He also found that people who like strong coffee tend to drink more of it under bright lights, whereas people who prefer weak coffee tend to drink more of it under dim light.
And the shape and color of the dinnerware can affect the taste of the food as well. In general, round white plates tend to enhance sweet flavors in food, whereas black angular plates tend to bring out more savory flavors. And serving food on a red plate tends to reduce the amount that people eat. And that is something you should know.
Chapter 6: What are the mental traps that hinder clear thinking?
Here's a topic that you don't hear discussed very often. It's the topic of how we recognize faces. But think about it. When you recognize someone, it's because of their face, right? I mean, you don't look at someone's hands and go, oh, it's Bob.
Chapter 7: Can caffeine consumption affect sleep quality?
No, it's always the face. Some of us are pretty good with faces. Some people are really good with faces. They'll often say, I never forget a face. And still others are face blind. They can't tell anyone, even family members, who they are by looking at their face.
Chapter 8: What practical strategies can enhance clearer thinking?
And of course, now we have something called face recognition software. How does that work and how does it fit into this conversation? Well, here to discuss this unusual and fascinating topic is Sharona Pearl. She's an associate professor of medical ethics and history at Drexel University. She's written a couple of books about faces. Her latest is called Do I Know You?
From Face Blindness to Super Recognition. Hi, Sharona. Welcome to Something You Should Know.
Thanks so much, Mike. It's really exciting to be talking to you.
So I have to say, it seems like an unusual career choice to study faces and how we recognize faces. How did you get into this?
I didn't intend to become a scholar of the face per se, because like you say, it's one of those things that's ubiquitous, but isn't really a category. And the things that we study and the things that we know tend to be categories. But I just got really, really interested in the stakes for the face as the most basic unit of how we understand our own humanity and build relationships.
And also as a site where we actually impose a lot of assumptions, biases, and then naturalize them and say, actually, it's not me. It's the face.
So there are people who seemingly can remember faces really well. Oh, yeah, that's Bob. I met him six years ago in Tallahassee. And they see a face once and they remember it. Then there are people, and I would consider myself in this category, I'm okay with faces. I sort of remember faces pretty well, but maybe I saw them on TV. Maybe I met them. I'm not really sure.
Is the ability to remember a face a skill?
So it's not really a skill in the sense of something that you can get better at or train yourself in. As you gestured toward, there are some people who absolutely cannot do this at all. They have something called prosopagnosia or face blindness. And they are absolutely unable to look at a face and then when they see that face again, understand that it is the same person.
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