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Curiosity Weekly

Short-Term Pleasures Are Important Too, the Smelly Armpit Enzyme, and a Thorne-Żytkow Object Is a Star Within a Star

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6964 Ratings

🗓️ 7 September 2020

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Learn about why short-term pleasures are important for your well-being; a Thorne-Żytkow Object, which is what astronomers call a star within a star; and how science identified the culprit for your smelly armpits: Staphylococcus hominis.

Short-term pleasures contribute to well-being just as much as self-control by Kelsey Donk

A Thorne-Żytkow Object Is a Star Within a Star by Ashley Hamer

Scientists have identified the enzyme responsible for smelly armpits by Grant Currin

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://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY

 

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/short-term-pleasures-are-important-too-the-smelly-armpit-enzyme-and-a-thorne-zytkow-object-is-a-star-within-a-star


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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

0:05.0

Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Gough. And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you learn about why

0:09.4

short-term pleasures are important for your well-being. what astronomers call a star within a star,

0:15.2

and how science found the culprit for your smelly armpits.

0:18.9

Let's satisfy some curiosity.

0:21.2

Goals require some sacrifice, right? I mean, the idea is that passing on short-term

0:27.8

pleasures in order to meet our long-term goals will make us happier, healthier, better people.

0:35.0

So the more self-control we have,

0:36.9

the more likely we'll be to get in shape, eat healthier,

0:40.7

and learn new skills.

0:42.2

And then, when we've met those goals will be better people, right?

0:46.0

Well, that's the popular opinion anyway, but according to new research, I'm sure you know where I'm going with this, we need to do some rethinking. This research suggests that short-term

0:57.2

pleasures contribute to well-being just as much as self-control. Great news for the mountain dew I had from the fridge earlier today.

1:07.0

Over the course of five studies, researchers from Switzerland and the Netherlands

1:12.0

measured how well-being was related to something they call

1:15.6

Hadonic capacity. Basically a person's ability to engage in and enjoy purely pleasurable activities.

1:25.0

It sounds like everybody would ace that test, right?

1:28.0

Well, but not so fast.

1:30.0

A good portion of people found it hard to enjoy pleasurable activities because they

1:34.8

couldn't stop thinking about the stuff they should be doing instead.

1:38.0

And the lower a person's hedonic capacity, the lower their well-being.

1:44.4

According to psychologists, those intrusive thoughts get in the way of giving your body rest and

...

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