It's Monday, April 17th, 2017, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Indra Viscontas.

And I'm Kishore Hari. Each week, we bring you a new, in-depth exploration of this space where science, politics, and society collide.

We endeavor, we endeavor, and why it all matters. You can find us online at motherjones.com

or at inquiringshow.t Tumblr.com. You can also find online at motherjones.com slash inquiring minds or at inquiringshow.com.

You can also find us on Twitter at inquiring show and Facebook. And you can subscribe to the show on

iTunes or any other podcasting app. All right. So I have a question for you. And this is where things get a little bit intimate.

What is the one behavior that you wish you could stop doing, but somehow always feel compelled to do?

Well, I'll do the twist on this. Here's the behavior that I do that my wife

wishes I would stop doing. And that I've always had this behavior, and I feel like I learned it from

my mom, where I kind of like cross my feet in bed and kind of like swipe them across each other.

It has this like really pleasing sensation for me and it makes

this noise that kind of relaxes me before I fall asleep. My wife hates it. And I like, I almost

have to do it to fall asleep. Oh my God. That might have been TMI. So yeah, so mine is that I have have this like if I'm sitting and listening to something and

it's not like truly riveting, I tend to pick at my cuticles. And like it's like I wish I didn't do it,

but there's like this compulsion to like, well, you know, I'm just going to stop as soon as I get

rid of this one little dry thing

part sticking out. And it's just, it's horrible. It's a compulsion. Do you actually wish you got rid of it,

or do you find some comfort in it? Well, I mean, I must find some comfort in it or it must, I mean,

it must be like just mildly entertaining enough so that if I'm slightly bored at a talk, you know, or slightly nervous. It's like just gives me something

to do with my hands. I mean, you know, this is maybe why I need some of those meditation

ball things that people wore beads of some kind, you know, something like that. But that kind of

repetitive behavior is really interesting because we feel as if we are in control of it. And yet

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