The Myth of Pregnancy Cravings, Why Raindrops Don’t Damage Insect Wings, and August’s Curiosity Challenge Trivia
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 964 Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2020
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn why pregnancy cravings might be more cultural than biological; and why raindrops don’t damage delicate insect wings. Then, play along at home and test your podcast knowledge with this month’s Curiosity Challenge trivia game.
Pregnancy cravings are more cultural than biological by Grant Currin
- Orloff, N. C., Flammer, A., Hartnett, J., Liquorman, S., Samelson, R., & Hormes, J. M. (2016). Food cravings in pregnancy: Preliminary evidence for a role in excess gestational weight gain. Appetite, 105, 259–265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2016.04.040
- Greenwood, V. (2020). The surprising reason why pregnant women get cravings. BBC.com. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200715-the-surprising-reason-why-pregnant-women-get-cravings
- Orloff, N. C., & Hormes, J. M. (2014). Pickles and ice cream! Food cravings in pregnancy: hypotheses, preliminary evidence, and directions for future research. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01076
Study shows why speeding raindrops don't damage delicate insect wings by Grant Currin
- Armor on butterfly wings protects against heavy rain | Cornell Chronicle. (2020). Cornell Chronicle. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/06/armor-butterfly-wings-protects-against-heavy-rain
- Kim, S., Wu, Z., Esmaili, E., Dombroskie, J. J., & Jung, S. (2020). How a raindrop gets shattered on biological surfaces. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(25), 13901–13907. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2002924117
Episodes referenced in Curiosity Challenge Trivia with Tom
- You Have Tiny Rocks in Your Ears, How Artists’ Personas Influence Your Music Choices, and Chemotherapy Began as a Chemical Weapon https://curiositydaily.com/you-have-tiny-rocks-in-your-ears-how-artists-personas-influence-your-music-choices-and-chemotherapy-began-as-a-chemical-weapon/
- Parents’ Brains Sync When They’re Together, the Genius Math Behind Credit Card Numbers, and July’s Curiosity Challenge Trivia https://curiositydaily.com/parents-brains-sync-when-theyre-together-the-genius-math-behind-credit-card-numbers-and-julys-curiosity-challenge-trivia/
- Sharks Aren’t Just Apex Predators (w/ Forrest Galante), How Cats Affect Online Dating, and When Giant Prehistoric Sea Scorpions Ruled the Seas https://curiositydaily.com/sharks-arent-just-apex-predators-w-forrest-galante-how-cats-affect-online-dating-and-when-giant-prehistoric-sea-scorpions-ruled-the-seas/
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/the-myth-of-pregnancy-cravings-why-raindrops-dont-damage-insect-wings-and-augusts-curiosity-challenge-trivia
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 |
| 0:04.9 | Curiosity.com. I'm Cody goth and I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you learn why pregnancy |
| 0:09.8 | cravings might be more cultural than biological, |
| 0:13.0 | and why raindrops don't damage delicate insect wings. |
| 0:16.0 | Then, play along at home and test your podcast knowledge |
| 0:19.0 | with this month's Curiosity Challenge trivia game. |
| 0:22.0 | Let's satisfy some curiosity and challenge it. |
| 0:26.0 | You're waiting for me to say challenge it, weren't you? |
| 0:29.0 | We're gonna do both. |
| 0:30.0 | My wife is pregnant, but I don't think you have to have a pregnant wife to know that when a pregnant woman has a craving for pickles and ice cream, you get her pickles and ice cream. |
| 0:41.0 | Doesn't matter if it's late at night. Doesn't matter if she's going to dip the pickle in the ice cream. Doesn't matter if it's late at night. Doesn't matter if she's going to dip the |
| 0:44.2 | pickle in the ice cream. Doesn't matter. You get it for her. I mean, her body's |
| 0:48.9 | working pretty hard to grow a baby. All right? She's got enough on her plate. And more than that, you might think, well, her |
| 0:56.2 | body needs the nutrients and cravings are nature's elegant way of getting those nutrients. |
| 1:02.2 | But that last part is a little hairy. |
| 1:05.3 | According to a new analysis of several studies, reality may be a little more complicated. |
| 1:11.2 | Researchers did find a red flag for the time-honored narrative that |
| 1:15.6 | pregnancy cravings come from the body's need for nutrients. |
| 1:19.8 | And the evidence for the idea that pregnancy cravings are more cultural than biological comes from the fact that not all cultures have pregnancy cravings. |
| 1:30.0 | They're common in the United States and in other English-speaking countries, but there are a lot of cultures where they don't happen at all. |
| 1:37.0 | If the point of cravings is to get biologically important nutrients, |
| 1:41.0 | how do pregnant people in those cultures manage to eat what their bodies |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
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.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.