2468. Who do we appreciate? Angela, Angela, Angela. I'm Angela Duckworth. I'm Stephen Dubner. And you're listening to No Stupid Questions. Today on the show, how will the rising demand for customized products shape the future of our society? With too many jams and too many kinds of nuts.

Also, does multitasking actually increase productivity?

Even though I'm pretty focused on speaking with Angela Duckworth,

I'm also breathing and sitting.

I'm probably digesting.

Angela, I want to ask you a question that's inspired by some of the listener emails we receive for Freakonomics Radio.

Sounds good.

So a typical email might read something like, I love your show, but if you ever do this again or that again, as you did

on episode number 400, whatever, I'm going to stop listening.

Sometimes it's a particular guest they dislike, maybe for ideological reasons or political

reasons, but usually it's the way a guest will talk, maybe a lot of uptalk, or maybe with vocal fry.

There are also sounds that annoy people, sirens being used as sound effects, which we

realized a long time ago is truly annoying, because if you're out listening to a podcast

on your bike or walking.

You don't know if it's a real siren.

Exactly. So we got rid of that. And then there's something else we stopped. Here, this is an

email we got not long ago. Please, someone writes, for the love of all that is good and holy,

never record someone slurping or chewing on your podcast again. I say this out of love.

And for everyone who is overcome with murderous rage when they hear

those noises, please don't play slurps or chewing. In fact, we've actually done episodes about

mesophonia. What is that? Mizophonia is a condition whereby it's very painful to hear certain

oral sounds like slurping and chewing.

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