History’s Average Commute Time, Fight Procrastination with Emotions, and the Largest Ever Study of Cancer Genomes

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Learn about how little the average commute time has changed throughout human history; what researchers learned from the largest-ever study of cancer genomes; and why procrastination is about managing emotions, not time.

The Marchetti Constant by Kelsey Donk

English, J. (2019, August 29). The History of Cities Is About How We Get to Work. CityLab; CityLab. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/08/commute-time-city-size-transportation-urban-planning-history/597055/
Marchetti, C. (2011). Anthropological Invariants in Travel Behavior. Iiasa.Ac.At. http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/4071/

Scientists have released the largest-ever study of cancer genomes by Grant Currin

Gallagher, J. (2020, February 5). Landmark study to transform cancer treatment. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51391151
Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes. (2020). Nature.com. https://doi.org/10.1038/d42859-020-00001-y
Massive cancer genome study reveals how DNA errors drive tumor growth. (2020, February 5). Science | AAAS. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/massive-cancer-genome-study-reveals-how-dna-errors-drive-tumor-growth
Genetics Home Reference. (2020). What is a genome? Genetics Home Reference. https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/hgp/genome

Procrastination is about managing emotions, not time by Kelsey Donk

Jarrett, C. (2020). Why procrastination is about managing emotions, not time. BBC.com. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200121-why-procrastination-is-about-managing-emotions-not-time
Tice, D. M., Bratslavsky, E., & Baumeister, R. F. (2001). Emotional distress regulation takes precedence over impulse control: if you feel bad, do it! Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(1), 53–67. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11195891
Sirois, F. M. (2015). Is procrastination a vulnerability factor for hypertension and cardiovascular disease? Testing an extension of the procrastination–health model. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 38(3), 578–589. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-015-9629-2
Kashdan, T. B., & Rottenberg, J. (2010). Psychological flexibility as a fundamental aspect of health. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 865–878. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.001

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/historys-average-commute-time-fight-procrastination-with-emotions-and-the-largest-ever-study-of-cancer-genomes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com.
0:06.0	I'm Cody Goff. And I'm Ashley Hamer.
0:08.0	Today you learn about how little the average commute time has changed throughout human history,
0:12.0	what researchers learned from the
0:14.0	largest ever study of cancer genomes, and why procrastination is about managing
0:18.6	emotions, not time. Let's satisfy some curiosity. Here's a fun fact.
0:24.0	The preferred commute time has stayed the same for thousands of years.
0:29.0	Pretty unbelievable, right?
0:31.0	If you want to guess how long that time is, then picture this.
0:34.0	Say you've gotten a big raise at your job and you've decided it's time for an upgrade,
0:38.0	so you go house hunting. How long of a commute to work would you accept?
0:42.0	My guess is that you wouldn't want to travel for more than three years. How long of a commute to work would you accept?
0:42.5	My guess is that you wouldn't want to travel for more than 30 minutes each way.
0:47.1	Was I close?
0:48.1	Well, if I was, then you can thank our good friend, Science.
0:51.9	In 1994, Cesar Marqueti, an Italian physicist, described an idea that has come to be known as the Marqueti
0:58.1	constant.
0:59.6	In general, around the world and across history, people are willing to travel for about a half an hour to get to work.
1:06.0	It's true. The average American commutes for 26 minutes each way.
1:11.0	It's because of this preference that cities shape themselves
1:14.3	around the average travel speed. If everyone travels by foot, then the city has to
1:19.0	be relatively compact so everyone can get from home to work within 30 minutes.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Warner Bros. Discovery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Warner Bros. Discovery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.