Summary
Humans can walk for miles, solve problems and form complex relationships using the energy provided by daily meals. That is a lot of output for a fairly modest input. Listener Charlotte from the UK wants to know: how efficient are humans? How do they compare to cars, other animals and even to each other?
Presenter Marnie Chesterton pits her energetic self against everything from cars to rabbits to find out how she shapes up.
Marnie also explores whether humans are born equal when it comes to fuel efficiency. Does the energy from one banana get converted into the same amount of movement from person to person? Marnie gets on a treadmill to find out how efficient she really is. With contributors from Herman Pontzer, Duke University, Rhona Pearce, Loughborough University and Christian Gammelgaard Olesen from Wolturnus wheelchair manufacturing company.
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Caroline Steel Editor: Richard Collings Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris
Art Design: Jonathan Harris
Image credits:
Airplane: Credit: Ghrzuzudu Creative #:1337512445 Red car: Credit: EgudinKa Creative #:625457854 Wheelchair Woman: Credit: Ponomariova_Maria Creative #:1401730072 Getty Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism. |
| 0:09.0 | In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero? |
| 0:16.0 | Simply doing your job, being a decent human being. |
| 0:20.0 | A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by their own light, |
| 0:23.9 | and that light is to be recognized by others. |
| 0:26.5 | The Long History of Heroism with me, Rory Stewart. |
| 0:29.5 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:32.2 | I had this secret. |
| 0:34.8 | I robbed banks in my spare time. |
| 0:38.4 | Lives Less Ordinary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:41.6 | This is not a good thing to do because police are after you. |
| 0:46.9 | Find out more at the end of this podcast. |
| 0:50.2 | You're listening to CrowdScience from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:53.5 | I'm Marnie Chesterton. |
| 0:57.1 | And I'm on a massive treadmill wearing a face mask. And I'm currently walking quite a gentle pace. |
| 1:08.7 | But I'm going to be put through my paces, and that's because of the question from |
| 1:13.5 | Charlotte, who wants to know how efficient we are. Earlier, I visited her at her home in Stroud |
| 1:21.0 | in the UK. I'm Charlotte. How old are you, Charlotte? |
| 1:28.0 | 11. |
| 1:29.8 | And where are we? |
| 1:31.0 | At my house. |
| 1:36.4 | And we're here because you wrote a question into crowd science, didn't you? |
... |
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