Measuring the Deadliness of Viruses (Like Coronavirus), Why We Do the Potty Dance, and Depression’s Cousin “Acedia”

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn about how scientists measure the contagiousness and deadliness of diseases like coronavirus; the history of acedia, an emotion that is similar to (but distinct from) depression; and why it helps to do a “potty dance” when you really have to go to the bathroom.

Measuring the Deadliness of Viruses (Like Coronavirus) by Ashley Hamer

McCandless, D. (2018, October). The MicrobeScope – Infectious Diseases in Context — Information is Beautiful. https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-microbescope-infectious-diseases-in-context/
Vanessa Bates Ramirez. (2014, October 28). What Is R0?: Gauging Contagious Infections. Healthline; Healthline Media. https://www.healthline.com/health/r-nought-reproduction-number
Vogel, Gretchen (2014, September 8). How deadly is Ebola? Statistical challenges may be inflating survival rate. Science | AAAS. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/how-deadly-ebola-statistical-challenges-may-be-inflating-survival-rate
How Bad Will the Coronavirus Outbreak Get? Here Are 6 Key Factors. (2020, January 31). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/asia/china-coronavirus-contain.html

Depression’s Cousin “Acedia” by Mae Rice

You Might Not Actually Be Struggling With Depression | HeartSupport https://blog.heartsupport.com/you-might-not-actually-be-struggling-with-depression-8ce57ab41f66
Before Sloth Meant Laziness, It Was the Spiritual Sin of Acedia | Atlas Obscura https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/desert-fathers-sins-acedia-sloth
Do You Have Any of These 3 Signs of Acedia? | National Catholic Register http://www.ncregister.com/blog/dlittle/do-you-have-any-of-these-3-signs-of-acedia
Kathleen Norris battles ‘the demon of acedia’ | Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-kathleen-norris21-2008sep21-story.html
Depression And Acedia: The Mood And The Spirit | PsyWeb http://www.psyweb.com/articles/depression/depression-and-acedia-the-mood-and-the-spirit/
A Need For Spiritual Connection | Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/spiritual-wisdom-secular-times/201608/need-spiritual-connection

Why We Do the Potty Dance by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Stewart C.)

Ashish. (2015, December 29). Why Do We “Dance” When We Really Need to Urinate? » Science ABC. https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/why-do-we-dance-when-we-really-need-to-urinate.html
Displacement activity | animal behaviour | Britannica. (2020). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/displacement-activity
Farricelli, A. (2013, May 3). Understanding Dog Displacement Behaviors. PetHelpful; PetHelpful. https://pethelpful.com/dogs/Understanding-Dog-Dispacement-Behavior
UConn Today. (2016, November 30). Mind Over Bladder: The Brain-Organ Connection. UConn Today. https://today.uconn.edu/2016/11/mind-bladder-research-explores-brain-organ-connection
Angle, S. (2016, April 21). Why Do You Have to Pee the Closer You Get to a Bathroom? Shape. https://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/why-do-you-have-pee-closer-you-get-bathroom

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from
0:04.8	Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Goff and I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you learn about how
0:09.0	scientists measure how contagious and deadly diseases are and and the history of a seedia, an emotion that is similar
0:15.5	to but distinct from depression.
0:17.5	We'll also answer a listener question about why it helps to do a potty dance when you really
0:22.1	have to go to the bathroom.
0:23.7	But satisfy some curiosity.
0:26.0	Right now, there's a respiratory virus spreading across China and into the rest of the world.
0:31.1	I'm of course talking about coronavirus. It's serious enough that the World Health
0:35.4	Organization has declared the outbreak in international public health emergency. Now we
0:40.6	generally shy away from developing news stories on this podcast
0:44.0	because our goal is more to make you smarter about the world in general and there are plenty of other places to get breaking news.
0:49.0	But we thought we'd explain some of the science behind the outbreak,
0:53.2	specifically how scientists measure a disease's contagiousness and
0:57.0	deadliness and how coronavirus compares to other diseases.
1:01.2	The rate at which a disease spreads is defined by a term called R-0.
1:05.0	That's like R with a little zero.
1:08.0	R-0 tells you the average number of people that will catch a disease from an infected person.
1:13.0	If R-not equals one, every existing infection causes one new infection.
1:18.0	If it's less than one, every infection causes less than one new infection,
1:21.0	which means it'll probably die out. If it equals more than one,
1:25.3	you get more than one new infection from each existing infection. That is how you get epidemics.
	...

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