625: Rebellion

What was the most rebellious thing you have done (that you’re willing to admit to)? Full episode script Rebellion is such an interesting and complicated concept. Usually defined as some kind of act of resistance against some kind of established authority, It’s normally invoked in one of two situations – when teenagers act out against […]

624: Unlocked

Do you (or would you / have you) purposefully leave your keys in an unlocked car? Full episode script If you’re old and nerdy enough, you likely at some point listened to Car Talk. That particular show’s hosts were both proponents of the idea of never locking your car. After all, if someone wants to […]

623: Book Money

How much are you willing to pay for a book? Full episode script Depending on which article you read, publishing is an industry that is either dying a slow and painful death, or is coming back with a serious vengeance. As with all statistics, it really depends on how you measure things. After all, […]

622: Lunch Break

Do you take a lunch break? Full episode script Food and mealtimes are nearly always very indicative of cultural attitudes and norms, and in some ways that is no truer than when examining habits and expectations around lunch and lunch breaks. There is, of course, lots of research on this topic — about how […]

621: Hot or Cold

Do you prefer heat or cold? Why? Full episode script Without question, study after study, weather impacts human behavior. From the very slow-and-steady change of genetic expression over generations in particular climates to the individual momentary changes that heat and cold causes, the impact is varied. But the weather and your genetic adaptation — […]

620: Cry

When do you cry? Full episode script According to a 2002 study published in the journal Cognition and Emotion, female-identified individuals cry an average of 3.5 times per month, while male-identified individuals cry an average of 1.9 times a month. Internationally, rates vary even more widely, at least according to the 2011 article “Culture and […]

619: Superstitious

Are you superstitious? About what? Full episode script Superstitions are not a purely human phenomena. Almost surprisingly, it’s one of the things I’ve done a lot of research on that nobody argues is a particularly human experience. That’s largely thanks to the research done in the 1940s by B.F. Skinner. Skinner found that when you […]

618: Divorce

What experience(s) have you had with divorce? Full episode script It’s a fairly commonly stated piece of “conventional wisdom” that in the United States, 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce. You can take that particular piece of quote-unquote common knowledge with whatever moral panic you think it deserves, or more likely doesn’t deserve. […]

617: Allowance

Did you get an allowance as a kid? If so, how much? Full episode script In America, sometime between the 1890s and 1920s, the idea of giving children allowances became not only more common, but suggested by some child-rearing experts. As one research article explained, quote: Statistics suggest that parents increasingly used allowances to allocate […]

616: Mentorship

Have you ever had a mentor? What do you remember most about the experience? Full episode script Etymology is usually an interesting insight into the history and usage of a word, but occasionally it is so demonstrative that almost nothing could top it. The word, and the action of, mentorship is one of those situations. […]

615: Young Competition

What (if anything) did you compete in when you were young? Full episode script This particular episode is going to focus on the United States, just due to a time limitation, but I am very curious how individuals in other cultures experience this. In 2018, Katie Hurley wrote in US News and World Report: […]

614: Luggage

How much do you pack for a weekend away? Full episode script When you think about going away for a weekend- down the street or across the globe – what gets packed up to go with you probably varies a lot, but is likely to stick pretty closely to at least the 40 or 50 […]