Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Unfiltered discussions.
Chapter 2: How can listening to music improve memory retention?
Unexpected guests. No topic is off-limits. From sex and relationships to the human condition. Personal anxieties and so much more. The only talk show of its kind in the world. World This Is. Hey, welcome in, pull up a chair, things are gonna get weird on tonight's show and here are some of the things you'll learn on the program.
A tropical spider, I know I'm arachnophobic too, but a tropical spider was spotted creating a sort of scarecrow spider in its web, many times larger than itself, to tell predators to go away. It's the first example of a spider making a puppet in its web we found in a rainforest. And it's horrifying, but also amazing. And we'll tell you about it in about 10 minutes time.
Then it's the end of an era for the MetroCard. You know, the subway pass people use here in New York where I live. And folks in the city have held a hilarious funeral for the now obsolete form of transportation payment. It kind of reminds me of that funeral that was held for a raccoon in Toronto, my hometown, many years ago. We'll give you the scoop on that story towards the end of the hour.
That's some of what we'll cover on tonight's program. There will be more, but let's dive in with some science news. As we age, I think a lot of us worry about our memory, but there is a trick to make your memory improve as you age.
Chapter 3: What did the study reveal about the star Betelgeuse?
All you got to do is listen to music after something happens. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but hey, we're going to discuss this new scientific discovery research paper with Jesse Rogerson on science news. Jesse is a astrophysicist at York University. Jesse, what a pleasure it is having you. So great to have you back. I'm so happy to be back, David. Thanks for having me.
Oh, what a mensch, he said. Okay, this one, I mean, it does involve Alzheimer's patients. So maybe it's like, I can't just listen to, I don't know, Taylor Swift's newest album and all of a sudden remember everything that happened in my life.
Chapter 4: How do tropical spiders use puppets for protection?
Maybe it's not as simple as that, but it's pretty cool research. You know what though, actually, in this study, so the headline of the study is that you can use music to reinforce knowledge that you just got. And they did it for both like healthy older adults and adults that are diagnosed with mild Alzheimer's. So it's not just Alzheimer's, patients. It also works with healthy older adults.
And the way they did this, so they had 186 participants. 93 were like the healthy older adults, and 93 were diagnosed with Alzheimer's. And then they broke those two groups into three categories to listen to different types of music. So what they would do first is they would show them a series of images.
These images had a variety of emotional tones, some happy images, some sad images, some neutral images. And they were basically committing them to memory. They were working with them. They were learning these images. And then immediately after that, they listened to some music. And that music also came in different flavors. Some of the people listened to really happy, like jaunty music.
And some people listened to very chill, relaxing music.
Chapter 5: What was the significance of the funeral for NYC's MetroCard?
Down tempo. Down tempo, yes. I love that. And then the third group listened to white noise, which I think is a weird choice. So they were meant to be like a control. So you have this, once you've done this music intervention, they then ran them through memory tests. They said, okay, how many of these do you remember? And how many happy ones do you remember? How many sad ones do you remember?
And then they also ran them through a test where they put in images that were not there before and got them to find the one that stands out.
Chapter 6: What conspiracies surround escapes from East Germany?
Which one's the one that wasn't there before? Or which one is the few that weren't there before? And they found some really, really interesting stuff They found that if you listen to music that is emotionally arousing, so happy, jaunty music, this actually makes your memory better.
It makes you more able, this is for healthy adults, more able to recall the images and more able to find the outliers. So that was really good. And what they found also is that if you listen to relaxing music, relaxing music actually makes you repress the negative memories.
All the ones with the negative emotions, if you were listening to relaxing music right after, you were less able to recall negative emotions. You're a professor at a university. What would you recommend to students while they're trying to cram before an exam?
Chapter 7: What are some unique 'Am I the a-hole?' scenarios discussed?
Like just cram, read all the materials, go through all the bullet points, and then listen to what? Oh my gosh. Well, okay. Yes, listen to music seems like the right recommendation. Listen to music that makes you happy is the right recommendation, but really cramming is the worst thing to do. So my premise was off. The premise is off.
Listen, this is something that professors don't teach you in university. D is for degree, my friend. D is for degree. I think depending on where you're going, David, depending on what you're trying to do, yes, that could be true. But I think the role here is, the role of the music here, is it attaches this emotional tag to the memory, and emotions are coded much harder in the memory.
So this is good for healthy adults, it's good for intervention for Alzheimer's people as well, but it's also good for PTSD people. So someone who has some severe PTSD, if they spend a lot of time listening to relaxing music, hopefully that might repress some of those negative memories. Now, there's a lot of work that still needs to be done, but there's some really interesting stuff found.
I have a pretty bad memory and I don't remember much of my childhood, but I remember one year after summer camp, I was driving with my dad and the Neil Young song, Old Man, was on the radio. And this is like a very moving song about reflecting on life's journey, you know, with the wisdom of age. It's from the perspective of like a son and an old father, whatever.
And I said to my dad, the summer went by really quick. And my father just said to me, you know, life really goes by really quick. So, you know, pay attention or something. And it was just an offhand thing he said to me. And it's so burned into my memory, probably because that song was playing. And now when I reflect on life's journey, that song and that conversation with my dad comes up.
I know I'm kind of derailing, but anecdotally, when I associate music with memories, they become more powerful. Yeah, I think – and what you're really doing is you're associating emotions with memories, right? And that's where – because that's when you're activating the amygdala in your brain, which is like – it like drives that memory down deep into the core.
So you had this emotional – you were in an emotional state listening to this amazing music, and then you had an emotional response from your father, and those two, boom – what made it go deep. Our next story is about an emotional response, loneliness.
The star Betelgeuse, a neighbor several hundred light years away, but in like galactic terms or universal terms, it's pretty close, is a huge, weird star. And it turns out Betelgeuse, we thought was a lonely star, but there's evidence that it might have a small companion star swirling around it. Tell me, this is a weird sort of celestial thing going on.
The star Betelgeuse is this weird star because it's near the end of its life. It's a red giant star. It's sort of in its death throes. Don't body shame Betelgeuse. Don't call it a giant. That's rude.
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