Chapter 1: How can drinking water improve your driving skills?
Today on Something You Should Know, how a quick trip to the kitchen can help you be a better driver. Then, hidden factors that affect your money, technology, algorithms, even credit cards.
There is this strange economics going on where the banks, they want you to use their credit cards so they can charge these fees. But then stores have to pay those fees. So what do stores do? They raise their prices. So now we're paying higher prices because of credit card fees.
Also, why does your eye sometimes just start twitching? And quitting anything, a job, a relationship.
Chapter 2: What hidden factors influence our financial decisions?
There are bad ways to quit and good ways to quit.
And really, I guess what it comes down to is a wise or a good quit is one that in which an individual quits for the right reasons at the right time and in the right way. And any one of those we can screw up.
All this today on Something You Should Know.
Hey, it's Hillary Frank from The Longest Shortest Time, an award-winning podcast about parenthood and reproductive health. We talk about things like sex ed, birth control, pregnancy, bodily autonomy, and, of course, kids of all ages. But you don't have to be a parent to listen.
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Chapter 3: How do credit card fees affect store prices?
Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. So drinking alcohol and driving is a horrible idea. But drinking water and driving is a spectacular idea. I'm Mike Carruthers and that is what we're going to start with today on this episode of Something You Should Know. If you want to be the best driver you can be, drink some water first.
Research shows that even mild dehydration, the kind you might have after a busy day, can impair your concentration, slow your reaction time, and increase fatigue. In one study, dehydrated drivers made significantly more errors during a long, monotonous drive. And it doesn't take much.
Losing just 1-2% of your body's water can start to affect how well your brain functions, which means something as simple as not drinking enough water can quietly make it harder to focus, think clearly, and stay alert. So, before you reach for caffeine or try to push through the mental fog, you might just try a glass of water. And that is something you should know.
A lot of what determines how much money you have happens in ways you never see. It's not just how hard you work or how much money you earn. It's the economy, technology, the credit system, even algorithms. Forces that quietly shape your financial life behind the scenes. So why does money seem to flow more easily to some people than others? And how much control do you really have over your money?
My guest has spent years uncovering the hidden forces that influence your wallet and your bank account. Alex Maiassi is a reporter for the podcast Planet Money, which I've recommended many times. And he's the author of a book called Planet Money, a guide to the economic forces that shape your life. Hey Alex, welcome to Something You Should Know.
Hi Mike, it's really nice to be here.
Well, I have so many questions. There's so many things to talk about. I want to jump right in. And let's start with the superstar effect. Can you explain what that is and why it's important and how it affects money?
Yeah, so the superstar effect is this idea that in certain fields, technology has really changed the range of outcomes. Did you grow up watching I Love Lucy? I did. So you probably know who Desi Arnaz is then.
He is Ricky Ricardo.
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Chapter 4: What is the 'superstar effect' in economics?
It's why is this free for me? And usually the answer is that you are able to buy and sell stocks for free because someone in finance on Wall Street wants to be on the other side of your trade. And so they're willing to front that cost. They're basically very happy to Take the other side of your trades because they think you are going to make bad trades.
So they are willing to take the other side of your trades and your bets. And that is why you are able to buy and sell for free. That is largely the reason why it is frictionless, free to buy and sell stocks as an individual average person nowadays.
It's because lots of people on Wall Street see you as dumb money and they want to take the other side of your trades because they think they will make money off of you. In the same way that you're talking about, like the house always wins.
Well, this has been some really valuable and interesting insight into how the economy works, how our money works, what affects it. I really enjoyed this. I've been speaking with Alex Mayasi from the podcast Planet Money, and he's author of a book called Planet Money, a guide to the economic forces that shape your life. There's a link to that book in the show notes. And Alex, great. Thanks.
Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate your questions and talking about this.
Quitting has a bad reputation. We're taught that quitters are losers, that success comes from grit, persistence, and never giving up. And often that's true, but not always. Sometimes quitting is exactly the right move. In fact, knowing when to walk away and doing it well can be one of the smartest decisions you'll ever make.
The real challenge is figuring out the difference, when to push through and when to let go. And that is what Jeffrey Lockwood is here to discuss. He's a professor of natural sciences and humanities at the University of Wyoming and author of the book, The Good Quit, Mastering the Fine Art of Giving Up. Hi, Jeffrey. Welcome to Something You Should Know. Hi Mike, thanks for having me.
So I think people have a very immediate reaction when they hear the word quit or quitting. It doesn't have a good connotation to it that, you know, quitting is not what you do. You persevere, you tough it out, you pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but you just don't quit. But you have a very different view of quitting. So explain what that is.
Well, I wouldn't say that I am an advocate of quitting when the times get tough or when things get hard. But there is a kind of wisdom about quitting, knowing when and how and why to give up. And so quitting is, I think, is much more complicated than that's a character flaw. It's part of living, and wise quitting is part of a full life.
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