Road to the 8-Hour Workday, the Liking Gap, Shocking Tomatoes

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 963 Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2021

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn about how guaranteed 8-hour work days came to the US; the liking gap; and the shocking defense systems of tomato plants.

It took more than 70 years to guarantee 8-hour work days in the US by Steffie Drucker

Lee, S. (2019, February 26). 40-hour work week: The history and evolution | Culture Amp. Culture Amp. https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/40-hour-work-week-the-history-and-evolution
Ward, M., & Lebowitz, S. (2020, June 12). A history of how the 40-hour workweek became the norm in America. Business Insider; Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-the-40-hour-workweek-2015-10
Hendricks, S. (2021, July 20). Thanks to Iceland, the four-day workweek is coming. Big Think; Big Think. https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/four-day-week-
Going Public: Iceland’s Journey to a Shorter Working Week. (2021). Autonomy. https://autonomy.work/portfolio/icelandsww/
80 Days That Changed the World - TIME. (2003, March 31). TIME.com. https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1977881_1977883_1977922,00.html
Ward, M. (2017, May 3). A brief history of the 8-hour workday, which changed how Americans work. CNBC; CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/03/how-the-8-hour-workday-changed-how-americans-work.html
History of Labor Day | U.S. Department of Labor. (2021). Dol.gov. https://www.dol.gov/general/laborday/history
The Haymarket Affair — Illinois Labor History Society. (2014). Illinois Labor History Society. Illinois Labor History Society. http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/the-haymarket-affair

People like us more than we think, and this bias starts as young as 5 by Cameron Duke

Kids As Young As Five Underestimate How Much Their Peers Like Them. (2021, July 7). Research Digest. https://digest.bps.org.uk/2021/07/07/kids-as-young-as-five-underestimate-how-much-their-peers-like-them/
Wolf, W., Nafe, A., & Tomasello, M. (2021). The Development of the Liking Gap: Children Older Than 5 Years Think That Partners Evaluate Them Less Positively Than They Evaluate Their Partners. Psychological Science, 32(5), 789–798. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620980754

When under attack, tomatoes sound the alarm with a jolt by Cameron Duke

Devis, D. (2021, July 29). Seeing red – do tomatoes feel pain? Cosmos Magazine. https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/plants/tomatoes-send-electric-warning-when-attacked-by-caterpillars/
Reissig, G. N., Oliveira, T. F. de C., Oliveira, R. P. de, Posso, D. A., Parise, A. G., Nava, D. E., & Souza, G. M. (2021). Fruit Herbivory Alters Plant Electrome: Evidence for Fruit-Shoot Long-Distance Electrical Signaling in Tomato Plants. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.657401

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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 Curiosity.com.
0:06.4	I'm Cody Gough.
0:07.4	And I'm Ashley Hamer.
0:08.6	Today you learn why it took more than 70 years to guarantee eight hour work days in the US, why people like you
0:15.0	more than you probably think, and how tomato plants defend themselves with an
0:19.7	electric shock. Let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:24.0	It's becoming increasingly clear that when it comes to work,
0:28.0	quantity does not necessarily equal quality.
0:32.0	Some are even pushing to shorten our five day work week to four days.
0:37.0	But once upon a time in the United States, even a five day work week was considered short, and it took us more than 70 years for it to become the standard.
0:49.8	And what better time to talk about this saga than on Labor Day?
0:54.9	At the peak of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, people were working 80 to 100 hours
1:01.5	per week. Even kids were pulling back breaking hours in mines on farms and
1:07.8	in factories where the conditions were often dangerous. Activists and labor unions began organizing for better conditions, including
1:16.2	a shorter work day. The creation of the eight-hour work day is credited to a Welsh labor
1:22.2	activist named Robert Owen. He called for eight hours
1:26.1	labor, eight hours recreation, and eight hours rest for workers in 1817. His idea eventually came to the US and in 1866 the National
1:37.0	Labor Union called on Congress to make the 8-hour work day law. They didn't, but support for the idea grew and in
1:45.4	1869 President Ulysses S grants made it happen for federal employees. The
1:51.6	eight-hour work day became law in Illinois in 1886, but many employers refused to comply.
2:00.4	In response, thousands of workers went on strike and turned out to protest in Chicago.
2:06.0	Things turned violence when someone threw a bomb at police officers who came to break up the peaceful rally.
	...

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