The player is loading ...
March 28, 2024
How to Improve your Working Memory, How Cornhole Improves Focus, Skyrocketing Bidet sales, Why Free Time is Toxic, Firearm Names for Kids
In this episode:
Research shows too much free time can lead to a decline in mental health! A new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found there’s a sweet spot for the perfect amount of free time.
Also, we already track our sleep, our steps, and our heart rate. So what’s next? Our glucose….meaning our blood sugar levels. It’s one of the fastest-growing trends in health and wellness - and it’s not just for diabetics anymore.
And then, have you ever been to a restaurant with a hand-written menu? Or one that uses a font that LOOKS like handwriting? Maybe they have a chalkboard with the menu written on it? We now know it makes us THINK the food is healthier.
We also recently told you one silver lining of the pandemic was an increase in marriages and a decrease in divorces. Well, here’s another silver lining: People discovered BIDETS!
Remember when we were all fighting each other for rolls of toilet paper? Well, it prompted a lot of people to buy bidets! It’s a crazy story including a guy called the Bidet-King
And finally, UCLA scientists report If you need to buckle down and focus, take 10 minutes to play a game of Cornhole.
(00:02) Eating Like Salmon and Memory Capacity
(11:40) Nostalgia and Wellness Trends
(24:36) Baby Naming Trends and Focus Hacks
Transcript
00:02 - Speaker 1
All righty, welcome to the podcast. I'm John Tesh with Gib Girard and coming up today. We know that salmon is one of the healthiest things we can eat, but now researchers say we should be eating like salmon, as if we were salmon. Okay, Also, we'll tell you why. Ever since COVID, people are going crazy, buying millions of bidets for their bathrooms. We'll tell you what's going on there.
00:25 - Speaker 2
You'll need one. You don't need a million of them, you just need the one.
00:27 - Speaker 1
We'll also tell you why. Research shows that too much free time can lead to a decline in mental health. How about that? So people are unretiring? We'll talk about it, okay.
00:37 - Speaker 2
I mean, I think it's all the same thing Too much free time and unretiring. It's all tied in together. Yeah, for sure.
00:43 - Speaker 1
We'll tell you why. Parents are now starting to name their kids not after politicians or even famous people, but after firearms.
00:52 - Speaker 2
I don't like any of the. I don't know why. Those are the only three options.
00:55 - Speaker 1
Let's go with. Is there an option D? And I'm so excited about all these topics because I feel like I've been chained to my piano here in the studio for months and months working on this piano course.
01:07 - Speaker 2
Oh yeah, You've been killing yourself.
01:09 - Speaker 1
It's actually so new for me. I mean, I've been playing since I was six years old, but I've never taught piano, especially teaching online, where you can't put your hands and move somebody's hands, and stuff like that.
01:20
But, it's been fascinating because we just released it, as you know, to a smaller group of people and then they said whoa, whoa, whoa, you're going too fast, including my wife, your mom. So she's already learned how to play one and a half songs. But it's basically no sheet music, no music theory. It's just because people, especially people my age I always wanted to do this just learn how to play a song.
01:44 - Speaker 2
Right, right, especially people my age like, can I? Just, I always wanted to do this kind of just learn how to play a song, right, right, and so this will give you the ability to play. You'll learn to play some songs, starting with your songs. Right, and, by the way, that's the way to keep the stoke of learning an instrument is, you learn a song and then you learn a little bit more as you do, you learn the chords and the fingering and then you keep adding songs to your repertoire and doing so learn more music theory, but having the first song that you can play and kind of get addicted to and get addicted to that feeling of practicing, that's key.
02:11 - Speaker 1
And I've seen it with my wife. I mean, when you start playing with two hands, your brain is just lit up. We know that it's great for your brain. I mean, how many stories have we done?
02:20 - Speaker 2
about learning an instrument and what it does for your brain the more parts of your brain you're using in tandem for any task, whether that's writing notes in a class to understand the material better. So by handwriting your notes you're going to understand the material better, whether it's saying things out loud in order to memorize or playing an instrument where you have to use more parts of your brain. All that does is it prevents Alzheimer's. It makes you smarter in other ways. It's just so good for you.
02:48 - Speaker 1
Yeah, that's well said. If you want more information, just go to teshcom. We have 200 more spots that are open right now to learn how to play piano. Let's talk about how important it is to eat like salmon. Now, I know that sounds weird.
03:02 - Speaker 2
Sitting in a river with our mouth open.
03:04 - Speaker 1
Yeah, knowing that salmon is one of the healthiest things we can eat. We know that. But now the researchers who have studied this Gibb. They say we should be eating like salmon, like we were salmon. So listen to the study and we'll get your opinion on this. It's a study in the journal Nature Food. It found that consuming the sort of wild fish that salmon prey on so mackerel, herring and anchovies could be healthier than eating salmon itself. And by directly eating more wild feed species, we can improve our health while also reducing demand for salmon that leads to overfishing. So we're basically cutting out the middleman, right.
03:39 - Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean you're getting the stuff that the food eats.
03:43 - Speaker 1
You're eating what the food eats, and so you're getting the stuff that the food eats.
03:44 - Speaker 2
You're eating what the food eats, and so you're processing. There's nothing in mackerel or sardines or anchovies that you can't digest.
03:52 - Speaker 1
Can I ask you a question? I thought mackerel was like as big as salmon. Is it small? It's smaller. Okay, I guess it would have to be.
03:59 - Speaker 2
Well, yeah, you know, salmon are pretty aggressive. But you and I, we like salmon. Yeah, we do. We eat a lot of salmon, you know. If you're at the right restaurant, that's number one for you and me to pick. But I can't get behind these smaller fish. I can't do it?
04:14 - Speaker 1
Yeah, we've tried with the anchovy thing, yeah, yeah.
04:25 - Speaker 2
There are people who just I mean, there's that guy, keto guy.
04:26 - Speaker 1
Yeah, he travels with anchovies and sardines in those tins right. And also clams canned clams yeah, I, I bought both of those at erwin I.
04:29 - Speaker 2
I think that it may be the hair for me fish with hair it's weird it, it weirds me and it's such a strong taste, especially the canned stuff, which I know is. You know, we talk a lot about how, how, when, if it's, if it's done properly, getting it right from the can where it's, where it's processed right away and preserved right away is actually in some ways fresher than waiting for the quote-unquote fresh fish that's been frozen for a little while.
04:52 - Speaker 1
I know you've reported on this before. Why is it again that the small fish are so much healthier for us?
04:57 - Speaker 2
Well, they've got all the nutrients that we want in the bigger fish, but they have mercury and other heavy metals that work their way up the food and other heavy metals that that work their way up the food chain. Also, other diseases that work the way up the food chain Don't? They're not as in high concentration in the in the little fish, because the salmon is eating all the fish that have the mercury in them and then what ends up happening is it becomes concentrated in that so the higher up the food chain you go, the more likely you are to get some of those negative because because, again, they're eating all the stuff.
05:25
That's eating all this stuff and it becomes more concentrated, so, like if you're eating shark, you're getting a lot of mercury yeah, you're eating when you're eating salmon, you're getting a lot of tuna. Same thing yeah.
05:33 - Speaker 1
So if you eat like a salmon, uh you're gonna get. So that's uh, we mentioned that's mackerel herring and anchovies you get a pile of iodine and calcium and iron, vitamin b12, vitamin a as giv mentioned omega-3, and then vitamin d and zinc and selenium.
05:51 - Speaker 2
So we know that it's better. Yeah, right, and this is the thing that happens on the show a lot of times is that we will tell you that this is the best way. But I want you all to know just put this in your back pocket if you, if you can stomach this stuff, go ahead and eat it and know that you're better than everybody else, but we're going to keep eating salmon Like this is better, but we're going to keep eating the salmon because I like how it tastes better.
06:12 - Speaker 1
Maybe I could put it in a blender.
06:14 - Speaker 2
Oh, that sounds disgusting.
06:15 - Speaker 1
The bit on Saturday Night Live when Dan Aykroyd put bass in a bass-o-matic.
06:19 - Speaker 2
Yeah, he blended. Oh gosh, here's the thing. I say how disgusting that is, but then, like a good anchovy paste, making real anchovies in a Caesar salad I love.
06:29 - Speaker 1
All right. So that's the bottom line. Is experts, researchers, want us to eat like a salmon. Let's talk about salmon's good for your brain. Let's talk about what else is good for your brain. It turns out that the more things that we try to remember at once, the more likely we are to forget everything. Lots of studies on this. It turns out it's because our brain does have a limited capacity in short-term working memory.
06:54
This comes from scientists at the University of Texas who just finished the study on this. They found that when people overloaded their brains by trying to remember too many things at once, their brain essentially started kicking out memories to make room for new information. They say it's kind of like musical chairs there are only so many spots, so something is going to get left out, and the more we try to cram it in, the more we'll forget things. So they say it's best to write down the important stuff. This is good. That will code the information in the brain in two ways through sight, through sound and depending on whether you're reading information or hearing it, and touch from physically writing it down yeah.
07:31 - Speaker 2
So I mean, that's that, first of all, that's all well and good and how it codes your brain, but also, now it's written down, you don't have, you don't have to remember it. And even that, by the way, just writing it down sometimes will make it easier to remember because you're not stressing about remembering it anymore. You not only have you engaged more of your brain in the process of understanding it, but you don't have the stress, the cortisol that blocks memory formation of oh, I can't forget this, I can't forget this, I can't forget this. Once you write it down, you've taken the pressure off and you're much more likely to perform better in terms of memory tests when you don't have that kind of stress. So, yeah, that makes sense. The other thing is we do too much multitasking, you know what I mean we're constantly.
08:13
We're constantly doing five, six things. I'm if I'm at the gym, I'm also checking my email if I'm uh, if I'm at the kids soccer game, I'm you know I'm I get text messages and messages and I'm checking them, and our brains are not meant for that. If I'm writing for the show, emails and texts are coming in and it takes me away from it. We have lost the ability to stay focused for a long period of time and our brains really can't handle what we're doing.
08:38 - Speaker 1
Yeah, Again from University of Texas, bottom lining this the more things we try to remember at once, the more likely we are to forget everything. We have to offload as much as we can, so we uh given. I recently told you, uh, the one silver lining of the pandemic was an increase in marriages and a decrease in divorces. You know, a lot of new data is coming in now, uh, from you know 2020 and what happened during the pandemic years, and there's there's something else that is happening now. Uh, well, during the pandemic years, and there's something else that is happening now. Well, during the pandemic, people discovered bidets. Oh, yeah, and you may wonder bidet why? Well, you, of course, remember this, when we were all fighting each other for rolls of toilet paper and people were hoarding, and it was a big news story. It did prompt people, a lot of people, to buy bidets and install them in their bathroom. James Lin is the founder of a very popular website, gabe. It's called bidetkingcom.
09:30 - Speaker 2
I can't believe he was able to get that. It's unbelievable. You think it was? Yeah, I'm surprised it wasn't already taken.
09:36 - Speaker 1
I am the king. It's an online marketplace for bidets. Of course. He says pretty much nobody regrets buying a bidet. That's a great marketing slogan Nobody regrets buying a bidet, it saves on toilet paper, and toilet paper can make conditions like urinary tract infections and hemorrhoids worse. One more thing, gib, before I turn you loose here. The bidet attachment company Tushy which is my nickname in high school, of course says the revenue continues to increase 20% year over year, and people are giving bidets as gifts.
10:06 - Speaker 2
So we're getting ready to remodel. One of my conditions is I want one of those new super toilets in the master. Oh, I've seen those or I've experienced those in hotel rooms. It has the bidet built into it. It's also a toilet because they are great and they get you cleaner. I mean not to be too graphic about it, but you're definitely, in fact, people in like people like in france, student cultures where bidets are very popular, can't believe that we, that we just use dry paper. So you know, I it absolutely gets you. I'm a big fan. You don't have one in your bathroom, but you could get the tushy attachment to your connie has one in her bathroom.
10:42 - Speaker 1
I know she does.
10:43 - Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah but you guys. So I Look.
10:45 - Speaker 1
The tushy attachment. If you're not doing the, is that going to show up on my credit card?
10:49 - Speaker 2
Yes, and the worst thing about it is you really only need one bidet. And then the next thing you know all you're getting all the time are email marketing. You bought the bidet have. Look, I, they're great, I, you, I go ahead and get, I'm gonna get that's. I know what I'm getting you for your birthday is the tushy attachment.
11:12 - Speaker 1
Thank you so much. Uh question uh here here for the moment, kib, is uh? Have your kids ever asked you about life before the internet? Oh yeah, okay, they can't comprehend it so apparently this is a huge topic of interest for gen z uh, people born after 1996 and Generation Alpha I didn't even know that's what they were called. Generation Alpha that's my oldest daughter's Generation Alpha.
11:34 - Speaker 2
Oh okay.
11:35 - Speaker 1
Kids born after 2010?.
11:37 - Speaker 2
Yeah.
11:37 - Speaker 1
Because neither of the generation they don't know what it's like. Yeah, so boomers, gen Xers and older millennials are now the last people to remember what it was like to use a payphone, a typewriter or an encyclopedia. You're, you're right on the cusp of two of those. Yeah, and it's fascinating to young people. They can't imagine how we socialized, how we met romantic partners, how did we get where we're going? How did we find a job or research information?
12:00
it was hard before the 1990s it was work right. Yeah, do the work kids. So now what they're doing and we see the popularity in the data that comes from from, uh, netflix and paramount plus and all that people are watching vintage tv shows like friends and seinfeld to actually try and catch a glimpse of what life was like, and watching movies that took place in pre internet times, which now feel like quote period films so, yes, absolutely so.
12:28 - Speaker 2
My kids, like I said, they can't comprehend what life was like. I'm what's called an elder millennial. I'm like, born like you said, right, I don't have a lot of the things that most millennials associate with, because as a kid we did not have the internet. I'm in that older age where, when I was in high school, people didn't have cell phones. I'm in that older age where, when I was in high school, people didn't have cell phones. I didn't get a cell phone until late in college and that created a very different cultural experience than people who were born just a few years after me. Because it really is.
13:01
Obviously, there's been nothing that has shifted the culture, the way that this has and the amount of information that you have at your fingertips at any given time, like we used to have to. There's an encyclopedia downstairs because I had to look stuff up in the encyclopedia. So my kids asked me about it and they think that they thought that the internet came out of like the plugs in the wall. So they thought that because I didn't have internet, I didn't have electricity. I had to explain to them the difference there. So there's old movies that you watch like Honey, I Shrunk. The Kids has all these weird gadgets in it, but my kids don't know what the weird gadgets are and what the normal things for kids and adults, like a wall phone. They've never lived in a house with a wall phone, so you have to explain. No, no, the wall phone is not one of his weird inventions, it's just the wall phone, the weird you know the breakfast making machine that is.
13:52 - Speaker 1
That's the weird invention. Yeah, I remember coming home from school and I could. I could tell where my one of my sisters was by the curly q cord that was.
13:59
There was attached to the wall that went into the closet right, yeah, the the little bit of privacy you could get was taking the corded phone and stretching it as far as you could go to get away from everybody else so social scientists are using terms like quote digital immigrants and the quote the last of the innocents to describe people who came of age in the era of record players, answering machines and paper maps. I remember when I first was on entertainment tonight in 1986 and I didn't have a cell phone right and mary, my co-host at the time, had one. She was walking around with it. She looked like an army, infantry man, radio man.
14:36
Right, because she had like a suitcase that she was carrying with one hand and the phone was attached to the side of it and she had a whip antenna that was extended like I don't know 12 feet above her head.
14:48 - Speaker 2
I thought she was calling in an airstrike. No, she was just super important and on the cutting edge of technology. I mean, look, it used to be ridiculous and now you can't imagine living without it. It's wild, but I miss it. I'm trying to give my kids as many of those experiences as possible. So they don't have cell phones, even though my daughter's 12. She's in sixth grade and we just signed a pledge that we're not going to give our kids phones until they're in eighth grade. I love it.
15:13 - Speaker 1
Because, there's.
15:13 - Speaker 2
There's something to be said about, about having to learn things, about having to experience things in the flesh before you give the digital, you know the, the digital connection to them. Yeah.
15:32 - Speaker 1
And you know, gib and I, you know what. We've sort of dedicated our lives to a mission and purpose which is to move you forward in your life. Personal development Now we know more about it's being studied. Free time is being studied. The latest research shows too much of it, too much free time, will likely lead to a decline in mental health. So this is a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. They found there's a sweet spot for the perfect amount of free time. They say it's about three and a half hours a day.
15:54 - Speaker 2
That's a lot of free time. I was going to say that I was like oh, thank you, that is a lot of time to yourself, I'll take it.
15:59 - Speaker 1
So they say, if you have more free time than that, your sense of well-being starts to take a hit. Wow, so some people of free time, I don't know. I got a friend who I call him at like 1030 in the morning and he's like, oh, I'm just getting out of bed and I'm like, oh, okay, all right, buddy. Turns out, having too much free time is associated with having a lack of purpose. There it is. It really matters how you spend your free time. So you're going to get credit. If you spend your free time gardening, exercising, socializing or reading, you will, just from that, dramatically improve your sense of well-being purpose.
16:29 - Speaker 2
Sometimes too, if you have a lot going on, it's almost easier to be more productive. And we talk about this If you are on a sports team in school, when the sports is over you have to immediately start your homework because otherwise you're going to be up until 3 o'clock in the morning. You know that you have to be ahead of it and it keeps you more focused and intentional. But if you know you have to be ahead of it and it keeps you more focused and intentional, but if you know you have all day to do something, then you're never. If you have one thing to do in a day, you're going to wait until the last possible second. If you have 10 things to do in a day, you'll probably get nine things done. If you only have one, the chances of you getting that thing done about 50 50. So I think it's it's that feeling of, oh I, I have nothing I'm really needing to do, and then you become overall less productive and it's a downward cycle of depression that's good, that's good.
17:13 - Speaker 1
Again, research shows too much free time can actually be toxic.
17:17 - Speaker 2
Yeah, I want to be in that situation. I want to have so much free time that I can be toxic, because I have not had that kind of time in a very long time.
17:25 - Speaker 1
All right coming up. We're going to tell you why 10 minutes of playing cornhole will help you focus and get more done, why more people are using apps and tracking their glucose levels. For longevity, Would you?
17:35 - Speaker 2
do this. It seems a little invasive, but I mean, I've done way weirder stuff than just tracking my glucose.
17:40 - Speaker 1
Yeah, I think I'm in on this. Plus, we'll tell you why parents speaking of weird parents are now naming their kids after firearms. That's all just ahead, but first this when you have a moment, please visit Teshcom. This is where you can get access to my music and live concerts and also find out about my new online piano course, the John Tesh Piano Method. Plus, you can join me for my weekly VIP coaching. The John Tesh VIP coaching program is an opportunity for you to get personal coaching from me in a small group environment. You get strategies, plus encouragement and accountability, plus live weekly Zoom calls everything you need to create the next chapter in your life. It's all waiting for you at Teshcom. Welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for sticking around or, if you fast-forwarded, welcome. I'm just sort of thinking about what I do with podcasts sometimes Zip, zip, zip.
18:35 - Speaker 2
I don't like this, I don't like that.
18:36 - Speaker 1
I don't like that. I don't like that here, I like this. So okay, excuse me, we already track our sleep, our steps and our heart rate. Yep, guilty, me too. And next is glucose, and I'm going to tell you something. I'll go through this, but I'm in on this because both you and I have seen so much research on this. Yes, blood sugar levels. So it is now one of the fastest growing trends in health and wellness, not just for diabetics anymore. It turns out one in three North American adults, one out of three Gib, are now living with diabetes or pre-diabetic.
19:09
Unbelievable that adults one out of three give are now living with diabetes or pre-diabetic. That is huge. That's an epidemic. Yeah, now, even if you're not. More people want to monitor their blood sugar and the fda they just approved the first over-the-counter device. This thing uses sensors attached to micro needles to continuously measure glucose levels and it's being marketed to non-diabetics. The thinking here is that when people can see how food and exercise affect their glucose levels, then they'll adjust their lifestyle and by keeping glucose levels stable, people can burn stored fat for energy and lose weight. This is like those restaurants who put the calorie count up there for all the fast food that we never pay any attention to.
19:46 - Speaker 2
You know, I've made decisions based on it. If I'm not too hungry, if I'm really hungry, it's like 1,400 calories sounds perfect.
19:52 - Speaker 1
But if I'm not too hungry, I'm like, oh, that's 950 calories. I'm going to make a different decision. The only thing that gets my attention is the frosty snow metal, or whatever that thing is from Burger King.
20:01 - Speaker 2
It's slushy, super slushy, isn't that like 1,800? Yeah, that's where I draw the line. Good for you, we all have that line. But to your point right, we have all kinds of data in our lives and early information is so key. Early signals of the diseases that we have coming down the pipe are the key to preventing the damage from it. So cancer if you can get precancerous cells nipped in the bud, you never have to have the detrimental effects of the actual cancer. If you can understand your glucose levels to the point where you don't need insulin and you don't become fully diabetic, then you are. It's way easier. And we, when we were doing full keto, when you were in the middle of chemo and we were doing like you were doing full, full keto we would prick our fingers two, three times a day to check our ketone levels and in that process that was intense.
20:58
My fingers started hurting, even just now thinking about it. It was such an intense time, checking your blood constantly. But the new glucose monitors have you seen what they look like? They look like a little patch on the back of your arm and they don't.
21:11 - Speaker 1
It has a readout on the patch.
21:14 - Speaker 2
It's got a Bluetooth thing to your phone. Oh my gosh so basically, you're constantly monitoring your glucose. This comes from the onset of the glucose pumps that are much more popular with people with diabetes now, and you need that constant feedback of where your your glucose is. Basically, you're off-boarding your pancreas, um, but if you, you know, you could just put that on your arm and you have constant blood glucose readings, that's I mean. That makes it hard to say no to this. You know what I mean?
21:42
off-boarding my pancreas yeah, the little the insulin pumps that they have I got you, just you have the feedback from the glucose monitor, and then it just tells the insulin pump to give you more insulin.
21:55 - Speaker 1
It just triggered a memory of me feeling that back in the 70s in New York that my liver was trying to off-board itself.
22:03 - Speaker 2
Yeah, what's his name? Keith Richards has been off-boarding his liver for a while. Oh my gosh, those blood switchers.
22:11 - Speaker 1
I'm looking this up now.
22:12 - Speaker 2
I you know if you get one, I'll take one okay, uh, yeah, christmas here we go okay so uh have you ever give.
22:19 - Speaker 1
I'm sure I'm sure you have ever been to a restaurant with a handwritten menu, or one that uses a font that just looks like handwriting yeah uh, you know, I remember back again. You know, back in the 70s in New York they used to have chalkboards. They still do, right, yeah, they have a chalkboard with the menu written on it. Well, now, no, no, that it makes us think the food is healthier.
22:40 - Speaker 2
And fancier. This was researched.
22:42 - Speaker 1
Right, I had no idea. This is researched by Ohio State University. The folks there found that when menus appear to be handwritten as opposed to printed in a standard font, diners believe the food will be better for them, even if the actual menu items are identical. They also felt the food was more likely to be locally grown, organic and hormone-free. The researchers say seeing handwriting makes customers feel like the food has more heart, more effort and love in it. So yeah, the power of the chalkboard.
23:14 - Speaker 2
Amazing. So you know, there's so much that we and I love unpacking this on the show about the mentality that we have with food, our, our mental attachment to food, our emotional attachment to food. They did that thing it's a whole school.
23:27 - Speaker 1
It's a whole school at cornell university, the food and brands laboratory so they put.
23:31 - Speaker 2
You put fast food, fast food, cheeseburgers on a plate and you space it out properly and it looks like a cheeseburger that you get at a fancy restaurant and and you think it tastes better.
23:41 - Speaker 1
Right, we've talked about that before.
23:43 - Speaker 2
Um, and this is, this is the same kind of thing. You take the same menu and you make it look like it's catch of the day. All of a sudden, you're gonna feel a much oh, this was, this was pulled out of the ocean today. Doesn't matter, it's frozen tilapia, you, you, just because it's handwritten it feels like they didn't have a choice like oh, we didn't have time to get the menus printed.
24:02
We had to hand write them because the food is that fresh. We just found out that swiss chard was available at cost today, so that's what's on the menu.
24:12 - Speaker 1
Oh my gosh swiss chard sign me up I've told this story to you before and to the family, but I don't think these folks have heard this story. My experience with a oh, I know.
24:23 - Speaker 2
So this is, by the way, we were going to say this on the radio show. We didn't have time. This is exactly why you need to listen to.
24:28 - Speaker 1
The podcast is for stories like this yeah, there you go, there you go, or or to unsubscribe yeah, depending on how the story's gonna go like this, then unsubscribe right now.
24:36
So 1976, I'm hired to be a news correspondent at wCBS, channel 2 in New York. They're, you know, the flagship news station for CBS Network and I'm in there and I'm working and the news was amazing In the newsroom I'm a cub reporter. At 23 years old, I had just come from Nashville where I was working with Pat Sajak and those guys, and so here I am. You know, I knew New York, I grew up on Long Island but I'm a fish out of water. And I've got John Stossel to my left, meredith Vieira to my right, bill O'Reilly had just left the newsroom, linda Ellerbee All these people in the newsroom there.
25:11 - Speaker 2
Big names.
25:13 - Speaker 1
Yeah, they became big names, for sure. And so I'm there for about two weeks and Stossel John Stossel, who you may remember from 2020 and from Fox News Stossel took me under his wing and he was a little older than me and so he said, hey, let's go out to lunch. And again, I'd been there for like two weeks, right, and I've been on the air, you know, anchoring the weekend show and also doing some, some stuff and reporting. And so I'm sitting there talking to him at this at this, said John, just stop for a second, I'm going crazy here. I've got this big smile on my face. He goes. What's going on?
25:49
I said I mean, all these people are like, I've been on the news for two weeks and everybody in this place recognizes me. They're all pointing at me and leaning in and talking to each other. And they're all pointing at me and leaning in and talking to each other. And Stas was just so great. Stas goes. You're an idiot. And I said what he goes? The menu is behind you. And so I look behind me and the chalkboard menu is there.
26:12 - Speaker 2
So one of the many dangers of the handwritten menu is that you will think that you're a little bit more famous than you are. And that was the moment I became humble for the rest of my life.
26:22 - Speaker 1
Be careful little bit more famous than you are, and that was the moment I became humble for the rest of my life. You know, be careful.
26:27 - Speaker 2
There may always be a menu behind you exactly yeah, the chalk written, the chalkboard menu handwritten, and you all of a sudden thought man, I'm the toast of the town.
26:35 - Speaker 1
Reason enough to listen to the podcast as gib said there, it is uh, apparently parents, gib, we love following these trends, but parents, they decided gosh. I guess about every two or three months we have a baby naming trend story, things like that.
26:52 - Speaker 2
It keeps changing.
26:52 - Speaker 1
Right?
26:54
Well, I'll ask this question later, but the trend is that parents don't want to name their kids after politicians anymore not modern politicians, you say, obviously, but in the 1920s, names of past presidents like Cleveland and Roosevelt, they were top names, like the top five names given to babies, and when Presidents Harding and Wilson served their terms, both names spiked in popularity following their elections. Today, almost no babies according to Nameberry, no babies are being given the names Biden, trump or Obama yeah. However, more babies according to nameberry, no babies are being given the names biden, trump or obama yeah, uh. However, more parents are now naming their kids after firearms and you're like, I didn't see that coming. Yeah, so the top gun related names showing up on birth certificates in recent years. I'm not guessing they're seeing this on birth certificates, right? They include shooter trigger, beretta, ruger. They include Shooter Trigger, beretta Ruger and Caliber. Trigger is the name of a horse, by the way, folks.
27:47 - Speaker 2
Trigger is the name of a horse Shooter is the name of a villain in an old Adam Sandler movie called.
27:51 - Speaker 1
Happy Gilmore. Isn't Ruger one of the Willis kids?
27:58 - Speaker 2
No, it's Rumor, sorry, rumor Willis yeah yeah, yeah, there's so many other sources you could get your names from. You don't have to choose politicians or guns. You could pick something completely different. You could pick places. Name it after where you met your wife.
28:15 - Speaker 1
Alps, yeah, fine Alps.
28:18 - Speaker 2
Barcelona.
28:20 - Speaker 1
That's cool. Yeah, france, this is my daughter, france, I'm sure.
28:26 - Speaker 2
I feel like there's not a lot of good news that comes out about firearms and you don't want your kid's name trending.
28:32 - Speaker 1
Yeah, that's the thing when the Beretta has an issue, right.
28:36 - Speaker 2
You don't want to be attached to that, Pick a new. Source. There's great names. There's old prophets in the Bible. You could name your kids. Source there's great names. There's old prophets in the Bible. You could name your kids after. There's a. You know, there's all the hobbits in a Lord of the Rings. Some great names there.
28:49 - Speaker 1
Pick something else. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, hey, it's time for lunch. Ak 47.
28:54 - Speaker 2
This doesn't work. Alexi Kalashnikov, that's the AK I. That's the AK I understand.
29:01 - Speaker 1
We gave a tip not long ago on the radio show about a great way to test a baby name is to go to a Starbucks and when they ask you for your name on the coffee cup, you remember this. You remember this, I do.
29:13 - Speaker 2
Yeah, they give the name that you're thinking about for your baby and then, when they finish your drink.
29:16 - Speaker 1
They'll say you know, yeah, so this is so dark Beretta, but imagine if the guy for your baby. And then when they, when they finish your drink, they'll say you know, yeah, but so this is so dark.
29:23 - Speaker 2
My thought, beretta, imagine the guy's yelling shooter, shooter and everybody's hitting the deck.
29:30 - Speaker 1
I know it's dark, but think about that I know, yeah, yeah, yeah shooter get down, I go, yeah, or just gun yeah, oh my gosh all right. So that's the latest on that pick a family man.
29:43 - Speaker 2
Pick a great aunt.
29:45 - Speaker 1
Name your kid after the great aunt like I said, this will be a conversation starter for you because it has become one for us. Um, we, we now have a, an odd product. We're all about productivity, we're all about, uh, you know, personal development, all that stuff. You know health, wellness, longevity, and and focus is hard because so hard of all the distractions that we have now.
30:05
In fact, one of the most popular books out there given I've recommended it before is Cal Newport's Deep Work. It's about how to just take a moment during the day. It could be a half hour, it could be six hours, like writer author Ryan Holiday and do deep work. But now there's a hack that will help you buckle down and focus. You just stop what you're doing and you take 10 minutes to play ping pong or cornhole. So, according to UCLA scientists, moving your arms quote-unquote for 10 minutes triggers the release of endorphins and those endorphins increase your ability to focus by 80% for two hours. And I was thinking they would say I didn't see cornhole coming. It's like ping pong, tennis, badminton, something like that. But no, they're recommending that's the beanbag.
30:57 - Speaker 2
It's beanbag toss, you throw it on a little wood slat with a hole in it.
31:00 - Speaker 1
I don't think we ever saw this in New York. No, there's not enough room to play cornhole in New York, you need at least 15 feet of unencumbered space Folks, if you're with me, we played stickball and ring olivio, but no cornhole. How big is the playing field for this?
31:18 - Speaker 2
thing, you put them 15, 20 feet apart and then you toss them, by the way, not to go off on a tangent here, they used to throw.
31:26 - Speaker 1
I think, we're on one. Yeah, did they used to throw corn?
31:29 - Speaker 2
cobs.
31:30 - Speaker 1
I'm sure they were like corn cob sacks, because you throw the beanbags but I'm sure they used to have one point where full of something else.
31:36 - Speaker 2
But on ESPN now they they have the world championship cornhole. They do not. And the people that play are so good, it's insane. I have. I'm a big fan of backyard games and tailgating, so I've played my fair share of cornhole, my fair share of ping pong in my day. The people that are really good at this are insane. I mean like they can not just get it in the hole, but get it in the hole without knocking anybody else's beanbag that's hanging over the hole. They are so good at it, it's unbelievable is there money exchanging hands here, gambling?
32:08
I mean, I'm sure there's gambling, I'm sure there, there's, you know, billions in sponsorship dollars do these people look like they're in shape, or they do not, it looks very similar to like bowling there's some people who are fit and some people who are three inches away from an aneurysm, so that it's it's both, but the point is that they're all super focused because that process helps you focus we see this in like silicon valley companies too, because they put the, they put the beanbags, foosball, foosball, cornhole, it's all in the lobby there and those guys.
32:44
They got to go up in code for 17 more hours. So there's got to be something to it, yeah.
32:48 - Speaker 1
Okay, well, hopefully it'll never hit the Olympics.
32:51 - Speaker 2
Oh, I bet you Watch this 2030, it'll be there.
32:54 - Speaker 1
Okay, that's all we got today. We thought we would love to have you as a regular subscriber so you can get notified every time we launch an episode. And hey, listen, if you wanted to learn how to play a song on the piano or keyboard, I can make that happen for you. The new online course is called the John Tesh Piano Method Learn how to Play Piano. Learning my Songs you can learn songs from all seven of my PBS specials. But hey, who wouldn't want to learn how to play the NBA basketball song right now?
33:27 - Speaker 2
Come on, come on, I can teach you how to do that. You could play it along while your friends are playing court hall. Oh, he sinks the topper Topper. Yeah, if you get a beanbag in on top of somebody else's, it's a topper. You can take their points. You know way too much about this. I love backyard games.
33:45 - Speaker 1
I knew you knew baseball, but cornhole, oh yeah, you can find my piano course at Teshcom, and no reference at all to cornhole.
33:58 - Speaker 2
Thanks for joining, not yet.
All righty, welcome to the podcast. I'm John Tesh with Gib Girard and coming up today. We know that salmon is one of the healthiest things we can eat, but now researchers say we should be eating like salmon, as if we were salmon. Okay, Also, we'll tell you why. Ever since COVID, people are going crazy, buying millions of bidets for their bathrooms. We'll tell you what's going on there.
00:25 - Speaker 2
You'll need one. You don't need a million of them, you just need the one.
00:27 - Speaker 1
We'll also tell you why. Research shows that too much free time can lead to a decline in mental health. How about that? So people are unretiring? We'll talk about it, okay.
00:37 - Speaker 2
I mean, I think it's all the same thing Too much free time and unretiring. It's all tied in together. Yeah, for sure.
00:43 - Speaker 1
We'll tell you why. Parents are now starting to name their kids not after politicians or even famous people, but after firearms.
00:52 - Speaker 2
I don't like any of the. I don't know why. Those are the only three options.
00:55 - Speaker 1
Let's go with. Is there an option D? And I'm so excited about all these topics because I feel like I've been chained to my piano here in the studio for months and months working on this piano course.
01:07 - Speaker 2
Oh yeah, You've been killing yourself.
01:09 - Speaker 1
It's actually so new for me. I mean, I've been playing since I was six years old, but I've never taught piano, especially teaching online, where you can't put your hands and move somebody's hands, and stuff like that.
01:20
But, it's been fascinating because we just released it, as you know, to a smaller group of people and then they said whoa, whoa, whoa, you're going too fast, including my wife, your mom. So she's already learned how to play one and a half songs. But it's basically no sheet music, no music theory. It's just because people, especially people my age I always wanted to do this just learn how to play a song.
01:44 - Speaker 2
Right, right, especially people my age like, can I? Just, I always wanted to do this kind of just learn how to play a song, right, right, and so this will give you the ability to play. You'll learn to play some songs, starting with your songs. Right, and, by the way, that's the way to keep the stoke of learning an instrument is, you learn a song and then you learn a little bit more as you do, you learn the chords and the fingering and then you keep adding songs to your repertoire and doing so learn more music theory, but having the first song that you can play and kind of get addicted to and get addicted to that feeling of practicing, that's key.
02:11 - Speaker 1
And I've seen it with my wife. I mean, when you start playing with two hands, your brain is just lit up. We know that it's great for your brain. I mean, how many stories have we done?
02:20 - Speaker 2
about learning an instrument and what it does for your brain the more parts of your brain you're using in tandem for any task, whether that's writing notes in a class to understand the material better. So by handwriting your notes you're going to understand the material better, whether it's saying things out loud in order to memorize or playing an instrument where you have to use more parts of your brain. All that does is it prevents Alzheimer's. It makes you smarter in other ways. It's just so good for you.
02:48 - Speaker 1
Yeah, that's well said. If you want more information, just go to teshcom. We have 200 more spots that are open right now to learn how to play piano. Let's talk about how important it is to eat like salmon. Now, I know that sounds weird.
03:02 - Speaker 2
Sitting in a river with our mouth open.
03:04 - Speaker 1
Yeah, knowing that salmon is one of the healthiest things we can eat. We know that. But now the researchers who have studied this Gibb. They say we should be eating like salmon, like we were salmon. So listen to the study and we'll get your opinion on this. It's a study in the journal Nature Food. It found that consuming the sort of wild fish that salmon prey on so mackerel, herring and anchovies could be healthier than eating salmon itself. And by directly eating more wild feed species, we can improve our health while also reducing demand for salmon that leads to overfishing. So we're basically cutting out the middleman, right.
03:39 - Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean you're getting the stuff that the food eats.
03:43 - Speaker 1
You're eating what the food eats, and so you're getting the stuff that the food eats.
03:44 - Speaker 2
You're eating what the food eats, and so you're processing. There's nothing in mackerel or sardines or anchovies that you can't digest.
03:52 - Speaker 1
Can I ask you a question? I thought mackerel was like as big as salmon. Is it small? It's smaller. Okay, I guess it would have to be.
03:59 - Speaker 2
Well, yeah, you know, salmon are pretty aggressive. But you and I, we like salmon. Yeah, we do. We eat a lot of salmon, you know. If you're at the right restaurant, that's number one for you and me to pick. But I can't get behind these smaller fish. I can't do it?
04:14 - Speaker 1
Yeah, we've tried with the anchovy thing, yeah, yeah.
04:25 - Speaker 2
There are people who just I mean, there's that guy, keto guy.
04:26 - Speaker 1
Yeah, he travels with anchovies and sardines in those tins right. And also clams canned clams yeah, I, I bought both of those at erwin I.
04:29 - Speaker 2
I think that it may be the hair for me fish with hair it's weird it, it weirds me and it's such a strong taste, especially the canned stuff, which I know is. You know, we talk a lot about how, how, when, if it's, if it's done properly, getting it right from the can where it's, where it's processed right away and preserved right away is actually in some ways fresher than waiting for the quote-unquote fresh fish that's been frozen for a little while.
04:52 - Speaker 1
I know you've reported on this before. Why is it again that the small fish are so much healthier for us?
04:57 - Speaker 2
Well, they've got all the nutrients that we want in the bigger fish, but they have mercury and other heavy metals that work their way up the food and other heavy metals that that work their way up the food chain. Also, other diseases that work the way up the food chain Don't? They're not as in high concentration in the in the little fish, because the salmon is eating all the fish that have the mercury in them and then what ends up happening is it becomes concentrated in that so the higher up the food chain you go, the more likely you are to get some of those negative because because, again, they're eating all the stuff.
05:25
That's eating all this stuff and it becomes more concentrated, so, like if you're eating shark, you're getting a lot of mercury yeah, you're eating when you're eating salmon, you're getting a lot of tuna. Same thing yeah.
05:33 - Speaker 1
So if you eat like a salmon, uh you're gonna get. So that's uh, we mentioned that's mackerel herring and anchovies you get a pile of iodine and calcium and iron, vitamin b12, vitamin a as giv mentioned omega-3, and then vitamin d and zinc and selenium.
05:51 - Speaker 2
So we know that it's better. Yeah, right, and this is the thing that happens on the show a lot of times is that we will tell you that this is the best way. But I want you all to know just put this in your back pocket if you, if you can stomach this stuff, go ahead and eat it and know that you're better than everybody else, but we're going to keep eating salmon Like this is better, but we're going to keep eating the salmon because I like how it tastes better.
06:12 - Speaker 1
Maybe I could put it in a blender.
06:14 - Speaker 2
Oh, that sounds disgusting.
06:15 - Speaker 1
The bit on Saturday Night Live when Dan Aykroyd put bass in a bass-o-matic.
06:19 - Speaker 2
Yeah, he blended. Oh gosh, here's the thing. I say how disgusting that is, but then, like a good anchovy paste, making real anchovies in a Caesar salad I love.
06:29 - Speaker 1
All right. So that's the bottom line. Is experts, researchers, want us to eat like a salmon. Let's talk about salmon's good for your brain. Let's talk about what else is good for your brain. It turns out that the more things that we try to remember at once, the more likely we are to forget everything. Lots of studies on this. It turns out it's because our brain does have a limited capacity in short-term working memory.
06:54
This comes from scientists at the University of Texas who just finished the study on this. They found that when people overloaded their brains by trying to remember too many things at once, their brain essentially started kicking out memories to make room for new information. They say it's kind of like musical chairs there are only so many spots, so something is going to get left out, and the more we try to cram it in, the more we'll forget things. So they say it's best to write down the important stuff. This is good. That will code the information in the brain in two ways through sight, through sound and depending on whether you're reading information or hearing it, and touch from physically writing it down yeah.
07:31 - Speaker 2
So I mean, that's that, first of all, that's all well and good and how it codes your brain, but also, now it's written down, you don't have, you don't have to remember it. And even that, by the way, just writing it down sometimes will make it easier to remember because you're not stressing about remembering it anymore. You not only have you engaged more of your brain in the process of understanding it, but you don't have the stress, the cortisol that blocks memory formation of oh, I can't forget this, I can't forget this, I can't forget this. Once you write it down, you've taken the pressure off and you're much more likely to perform better in terms of memory tests when you don't have that kind of stress. So, yeah, that makes sense. The other thing is we do too much multitasking, you know what I mean we're constantly.
08:13
We're constantly doing five, six things. I'm if I'm at the gym, I'm also checking my email if I'm uh, if I'm at the kids soccer game, I'm you know I'm I get text messages and messages and I'm checking them, and our brains are not meant for that. If I'm writing for the show, emails and texts are coming in and it takes me away from it. We have lost the ability to stay focused for a long period of time and our brains really can't handle what we're doing.
08:38 - Speaker 1
Yeah, Again from University of Texas, bottom lining this the more things we try to remember at once, the more likely we are to forget everything. We have to offload as much as we can, so we uh given. I recently told you, uh, the one silver lining of the pandemic was an increase in marriages and a decrease in divorces. You know, a lot of new data is coming in now, uh, from you know 2020 and what happened during the pandemic years, and there's there's something else that is happening now. Uh, well, during the pandemic years, and there's something else that is happening now. Well, during the pandemic, people discovered bidets. Oh, yeah, and you may wonder bidet why? Well, you, of course, remember this, when we were all fighting each other for rolls of toilet paper and people were hoarding, and it was a big news story. It did prompt people, a lot of people, to buy bidets and install them in their bathroom. James Lin is the founder of a very popular website, gabe. It's called bidetkingcom.
09:30 - Speaker 2
I can't believe he was able to get that. It's unbelievable. You think it was? Yeah, I'm surprised it wasn't already taken.
09:36 - Speaker 1
I am the king. It's an online marketplace for bidets. Of course. He says pretty much nobody regrets buying a bidet. That's a great marketing slogan Nobody regrets buying a bidet, it saves on toilet paper, and toilet paper can make conditions like urinary tract infections and hemorrhoids worse. One more thing, gib, before I turn you loose here. The bidet attachment company Tushy which is my nickname in high school, of course says the revenue continues to increase 20% year over year, and people are giving bidets as gifts.
10:06 - Speaker 2
So we're getting ready to remodel. One of my conditions is I want one of those new super toilets in the master. Oh, I've seen those or I've experienced those in hotel rooms. It has the bidet built into it. It's also a toilet because they are great and they get you cleaner. I mean not to be too graphic about it, but you're definitely, in fact, people in like people like in france, student cultures where bidets are very popular, can't believe that we, that we just use dry paper. So you know, I it absolutely gets you. I'm a big fan. You don't have one in your bathroom, but you could get the tushy attachment to your connie has one in her bathroom.
10:42 - Speaker 1
I know she does.
10:43 - Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah but you guys. So I Look.
10:45 - Speaker 1
The tushy attachment. If you're not doing the, is that going to show up on my credit card?
10:49 - Speaker 2
Yes, and the worst thing about it is you really only need one bidet. And then the next thing you know all you're getting all the time are email marketing. You bought the bidet have. Look, I, they're great, I, you, I go ahead and get, I'm gonna get that's. I know what I'm getting you for your birthday is the tushy attachment.
11:12 - Speaker 1
Thank you so much. Uh question uh here here for the moment, kib, is uh? Have your kids ever asked you about life before the internet? Oh yeah, okay, they can't comprehend it so apparently this is a huge topic of interest for gen z uh, people born after 1996 and Generation Alpha I didn't even know that's what they were called. Generation Alpha that's my oldest daughter's Generation Alpha.
11:34 - Speaker 2
Oh okay.
11:35 - Speaker 1
Kids born after 2010?.
11:37 - Speaker 2
Yeah.
11:37 - Speaker 1
Because neither of the generation they don't know what it's like. Yeah, so boomers, gen Xers and older millennials are now the last people to remember what it was like to use a payphone, a typewriter or an encyclopedia. You're, you're right on the cusp of two of those. Yeah, and it's fascinating to young people. They can't imagine how we socialized, how we met romantic partners, how did we get where we're going? How did we find a job or research information?
12:00
it was hard before the 1990s it was work right. Yeah, do the work kids. So now what they're doing and we see the popularity in the data that comes from from, uh, netflix and paramount plus and all that people are watching vintage tv shows like friends and seinfeld to actually try and catch a glimpse of what life was like, and watching movies that took place in pre internet times, which now feel like quote period films so, yes, absolutely so.
12:28 - Speaker 2
My kids, like I said, they can't comprehend what life was like. I'm what's called an elder millennial. I'm like, born like you said, right, I don't have a lot of the things that most millennials associate with, because as a kid we did not have the internet. I'm in that older age where, when I was in high school, people didn't have cell phones. I'm in that older age where, when I was in high school, people didn't have cell phones. I didn't get a cell phone until late in college and that created a very different cultural experience than people who were born just a few years after me. Because it really is.
13:01
Obviously, there's been nothing that has shifted the culture, the way that this has and the amount of information that you have at your fingertips at any given time, like we used to have to. There's an encyclopedia downstairs because I had to look stuff up in the encyclopedia. So my kids asked me about it and they think that they thought that the internet came out of like the plugs in the wall. So they thought that because I didn't have internet, I didn't have electricity. I had to explain to them the difference there. So there's old movies that you watch like Honey, I Shrunk. The Kids has all these weird gadgets in it, but my kids don't know what the weird gadgets are and what the normal things for kids and adults, like a wall phone. They've never lived in a house with a wall phone, so you have to explain. No, no, the wall phone is not one of his weird inventions, it's just the wall phone, the weird you know the breakfast making machine that is.
13:52 - Speaker 1
That's the weird invention. Yeah, I remember coming home from school and I could. I could tell where my one of my sisters was by the curly q cord that was.
13:59
There was attached to the wall that went into the closet right, yeah, the the little bit of privacy you could get was taking the corded phone and stretching it as far as you could go to get away from everybody else so social scientists are using terms like quote digital immigrants and the quote the last of the innocents to describe people who came of age in the era of record players, answering machines and paper maps. I remember when I first was on entertainment tonight in 1986 and I didn't have a cell phone right and mary, my co-host at the time, had one. She was walking around with it. She looked like an army, infantry man, radio man.
14:36
Right, because she had like a suitcase that she was carrying with one hand and the phone was attached to the side of it and she had a whip antenna that was extended like I don't know 12 feet above her head.
14:48 - Speaker 2
I thought she was calling in an airstrike. No, she was just super important and on the cutting edge of technology. I mean, look, it used to be ridiculous and now you can't imagine living without it. It's wild, but I miss it. I'm trying to give my kids as many of those experiences as possible. So they don't have cell phones, even though my daughter's 12. She's in sixth grade and we just signed a pledge that we're not going to give our kids phones until they're in eighth grade. I love it.
15:13 - Speaker 1
Because, there's.
15:13 - Speaker 2
There's something to be said about, about having to learn things, about having to experience things in the flesh before you give the digital, you know the, the digital connection to them. Yeah.
15:32 - Speaker 1
And you know, gib and I, you know what. We've sort of dedicated our lives to a mission and purpose which is to move you forward in your life. Personal development Now we know more about it's being studied. Free time is being studied. The latest research shows too much of it, too much free time, will likely lead to a decline in mental health. So this is a new study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. They found there's a sweet spot for the perfect amount of free time. They say it's about three and a half hours a day.
15:54 - Speaker 2
That's a lot of free time. I was going to say that I was like oh, thank you, that is a lot of time to yourself, I'll take it.
15:59 - Speaker 1
So they say, if you have more free time than that, your sense of well-being starts to take a hit. Wow, so some people of free time, I don't know. I got a friend who I call him at like 1030 in the morning and he's like, oh, I'm just getting out of bed and I'm like, oh, okay, all right, buddy. Turns out, having too much free time is associated with having a lack of purpose. There it is. It really matters how you spend your free time. So you're going to get credit. If you spend your free time gardening, exercising, socializing or reading, you will, just from that, dramatically improve your sense of well-being purpose.
16:29 - Speaker 2
Sometimes too, if you have a lot going on, it's almost easier to be more productive. And we talk about this If you are on a sports team in school, when the sports is over you have to immediately start your homework because otherwise you're going to be up until 3 o'clock in the morning. You know that you have to be ahead of it and it keeps you more focused and intentional. But if you know you have to be ahead of it and it keeps you more focused and intentional, but if you know you have all day to do something, then you're never. If you have one thing to do in a day, you're going to wait until the last possible second. If you have 10 things to do in a day, you'll probably get nine things done. If you only have one, the chances of you getting that thing done about 50 50. So I think it's it's that feeling of, oh I, I have nothing I'm really needing to do, and then you become overall less productive and it's a downward cycle of depression that's good, that's good.
17:13 - Speaker 1
Again, research shows too much free time can actually be toxic.
17:17 - Speaker 2
Yeah, I want to be in that situation. I want to have so much free time that I can be toxic, because I have not had that kind of time in a very long time.
17:25 - Speaker 1
All right coming up. We're going to tell you why 10 minutes of playing cornhole will help you focus and get more done, why more people are using apps and tracking their glucose levels. For longevity, Would you?
17:35 - Speaker 2
do this. It seems a little invasive, but I mean, I've done way weirder stuff than just tracking my glucose.
17:40 - Speaker 1
Yeah, I think I'm in on this. Plus, we'll tell you why parents speaking of weird parents are now naming their kids after firearms. That's all just ahead, but first this when you have a moment, please visit Teshcom. This is where you can get access to my music and live concerts and also find out about my new online piano course, the John Tesh Piano Method. Plus, you can join me for my weekly VIP coaching. The John Tesh VIP coaching program is an opportunity for you to get personal coaching from me in a small group environment. You get strategies, plus encouragement and accountability, plus live weekly Zoom calls everything you need to create the next chapter in your life. It's all waiting for you at Teshcom. Welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for sticking around or, if you fast-forwarded, welcome. I'm just sort of thinking about what I do with podcasts sometimes Zip, zip, zip.
18:35 - Speaker 2
I don't like this, I don't like that.
18:36 - Speaker 1
I don't like that. I don't like that here, I like this. So okay, excuse me, we already track our sleep, our steps and our heart rate. Yep, guilty, me too. And next is glucose, and I'm going to tell you something. I'll go through this, but I'm in on this because both you and I have seen so much research on this. Yes, blood sugar levels. So it is now one of the fastest growing trends in health and wellness, not just for diabetics anymore. It turns out one in three North American adults, one out of three Gib, are now living with diabetes or pre-diabetic.
19:09
Unbelievable that adults one out of three give are now living with diabetes or pre-diabetic. That is huge. That's an epidemic. Yeah, now, even if you're not. More people want to monitor their blood sugar and the fda they just approved the first over-the-counter device. This thing uses sensors attached to micro needles to continuously measure glucose levels and it's being marketed to non-diabetics. The thinking here is that when people can see how food and exercise affect their glucose levels, then they'll adjust their lifestyle and by keeping glucose levels stable, people can burn stored fat for energy and lose weight. This is like those restaurants who put the calorie count up there for all the fast food that we never pay any attention to.
19:46 - Speaker 2
You know, I've made decisions based on it. If I'm not too hungry, if I'm really hungry, it's like 1,400 calories sounds perfect.
19:52 - Speaker 1
But if I'm not too hungry, I'm like, oh, that's 950 calories. I'm going to make a different decision. The only thing that gets my attention is the frosty snow metal, or whatever that thing is from Burger King.
20:01 - Speaker 2
It's slushy, super slushy, isn't that like 1,800? Yeah, that's where I draw the line. Good for you, we all have that line. But to your point right, we have all kinds of data in our lives and early information is so key. Early signals of the diseases that we have coming down the pipe are the key to preventing the damage from it. So cancer if you can get precancerous cells nipped in the bud, you never have to have the detrimental effects of the actual cancer. If you can understand your glucose levels to the point where you don't need insulin and you don't become fully diabetic, then you are. It's way easier. And we, when we were doing full keto, when you were in the middle of chemo and we were doing like you were doing full, full keto we would prick our fingers two, three times a day to check our ketone levels and in that process that was intense.
20:58
My fingers started hurting, even just now thinking about it. It was such an intense time, checking your blood constantly. But the new glucose monitors have you seen what they look like? They look like a little patch on the back of your arm and they don't.
21:11 - Speaker 1
It has a readout on the patch.
21:14 - Speaker 2
It's got a Bluetooth thing to your phone. Oh my gosh so basically, you're constantly monitoring your glucose. This comes from the onset of the glucose pumps that are much more popular with people with diabetes now, and you need that constant feedback of where your your glucose is. Basically, you're off-boarding your pancreas, um, but if you, you know, you could just put that on your arm and you have constant blood glucose readings, that's I mean. That makes it hard to say no to this. You know what I mean?
21:42
off-boarding my pancreas yeah, the little the insulin pumps that they have I got you, just you have the feedback from the glucose monitor, and then it just tells the insulin pump to give you more insulin.
21:55 - Speaker 1
It just triggered a memory of me feeling that back in the 70s in New York that my liver was trying to off-board itself.
22:03 - Speaker 2
Yeah, what's his name? Keith Richards has been off-boarding his liver for a while. Oh my gosh, those blood switchers.
22:11 - Speaker 1
I'm looking this up now.
22:12 - Speaker 2
I you know if you get one, I'll take one okay, uh, yeah, christmas here we go okay so uh have you ever give.
22:19 - Speaker 1
I'm sure I'm sure you have ever been to a restaurant with a handwritten menu, or one that uses a font that just looks like handwriting yeah uh, you know, I remember back again. You know, back in the 70s in New York they used to have chalkboards. They still do, right, yeah, they have a chalkboard with the menu written on it. Well, now, no, no, that it makes us think the food is healthier.
22:40 - Speaker 2
And fancier. This was researched.
22:42 - Speaker 1
Right, I had no idea. This is researched by Ohio State University. The folks there found that when menus appear to be handwritten as opposed to printed in a standard font, diners believe the food will be better for them, even if the actual menu items are identical. They also felt the food was more likely to be locally grown, organic and hormone-free. The researchers say seeing handwriting makes customers feel like the food has more heart, more effort and love in it. So yeah, the power of the chalkboard.
23:14 - Speaker 2
Amazing. So you know, there's so much that we and I love unpacking this on the show about the mentality that we have with food, our, our mental attachment to food, our emotional attachment to food. They did that thing it's a whole school.
23:27 - Speaker 1
It's a whole school at cornell university, the food and brands laboratory so they put.
23:31 - Speaker 2
You put fast food, fast food, cheeseburgers on a plate and you space it out properly and it looks like a cheeseburger that you get at a fancy restaurant and and you think it tastes better.
23:41 - Speaker 1
Right, we've talked about that before.
23:43 - Speaker 2
Um, and this is, this is the same kind of thing. You take the same menu and you make it look like it's catch of the day. All of a sudden, you're gonna feel a much oh, this was, this was pulled out of the ocean today. Doesn't matter, it's frozen tilapia, you, you, just because it's handwritten it feels like they didn't have a choice like oh, we didn't have time to get the menus printed.
24:02
We had to hand write them because the food is that fresh. We just found out that swiss chard was available at cost today, so that's what's on the menu.
24:12 - Speaker 1
Oh my gosh swiss chard sign me up I've told this story to you before and to the family, but I don't think these folks have heard this story. My experience with a oh, I know.
24:23 - Speaker 2
So this is, by the way, we were going to say this on the radio show. We didn't have time. This is exactly why you need to listen to.
24:28 - Speaker 1
The podcast is for stories like this yeah, there you go, there you go, or or to unsubscribe yeah, depending on how the story's gonna go like this, then unsubscribe right now.
24:36
So 1976, I'm hired to be a news correspondent at wCBS, channel 2 in New York. They're, you know, the flagship news station for CBS Network and I'm in there and I'm working and the news was amazing In the newsroom I'm a cub reporter. At 23 years old, I had just come from Nashville where I was working with Pat Sajak and those guys, and so here I am. You know, I knew New York, I grew up on Long Island but I'm a fish out of water. And I've got John Stossel to my left, meredith Vieira to my right, bill O'Reilly had just left the newsroom, linda Ellerbee All these people in the newsroom there.
25:11 - Speaker 2
Big names.
25:13 - Speaker 1
Yeah, they became big names, for sure. And so I'm there for about two weeks and Stossel John Stossel, who you may remember from 2020 and from Fox News Stossel took me under his wing and he was a little older than me and so he said, hey, let's go out to lunch. And again, I'd been there for like two weeks, right, and I've been on the air, you know, anchoring the weekend show and also doing some, some stuff and reporting. And so I'm sitting there talking to him at this at this, said John, just stop for a second, I'm going crazy here. I've got this big smile on my face. He goes. What's going on?
25:49
I said I mean, all these people are like, I've been on the news for two weeks and everybody in this place recognizes me. They're all pointing at me and leaning in and talking to each other. And they're all pointing at me and leaning in and talking to each other. And Stas was just so great. Stas goes. You're an idiot. And I said what he goes? The menu is behind you. And so I look behind me and the chalkboard menu is there.
26:12 - Speaker 2
So one of the many dangers of the handwritten menu is that you will think that you're a little bit more famous than you are. And that was the moment I became humble for the rest of my life.
26:22 - Speaker 1
Be careful little bit more famous than you are, and that was the moment I became humble for the rest of my life. You know, be careful.
26:27 - Speaker 2
There may always be a menu behind you exactly yeah, the chalk written, the chalkboard menu handwritten, and you all of a sudden thought man, I'm the toast of the town.
26:35 - Speaker 1
Reason enough to listen to the podcast as gib said there, it is uh, apparently parents, gib, we love following these trends, but parents, they decided gosh. I guess about every two or three months we have a baby naming trend story, things like that.
26:52 - Speaker 2
It keeps changing.
26:52 - Speaker 1
Right?
26:54
Well, I'll ask this question later, but the trend is that parents don't want to name their kids after politicians anymore not modern politicians, you say, obviously, but in the 1920s, names of past presidents like Cleveland and Roosevelt, they were top names, like the top five names given to babies, and when Presidents Harding and Wilson served their terms, both names spiked in popularity following their elections. Today, almost no babies according to Nameberry, no babies are being given the names Biden, trump or Obama yeah. However, more babies according to nameberry, no babies are being given the names biden, trump or obama yeah, uh. However, more parents are now naming their kids after firearms and you're like, I didn't see that coming. Yeah, so the top gun related names showing up on birth certificates in recent years. I'm not guessing they're seeing this on birth certificates, right? They include shooter trigger, beretta, ruger. They include Shooter Trigger, beretta Ruger and Caliber. Trigger is the name of a horse, by the way, folks.
27:47 - Speaker 2
Trigger is the name of a horse Shooter is the name of a villain in an old Adam Sandler movie called.
27:51 - Speaker 1
Happy Gilmore. Isn't Ruger one of the Willis kids?
27:58 - Speaker 2
No, it's Rumor, sorry, rumor Willis yeah yeah, yeah, there's so many other sources you could get your names from. You don't have to choose politicians or guns. You could pick something completely different. You could pick places. Name it after where you met your wife.
28:15 - Speaker 1
Alps, yeah, fine Alps.
28:18 - Speaker 2
Barcelona.
28:20 - Speaker 1
That's cool. Yeah, france, this is my daughter, france, I'm sure.
28:26 - Speaker 2
I feel like there's not a lot of good news that comes out about firearms and you don't want your kid's name trending.
28:32 - Speaker 1
Yeah, that's the thing when the Beretta has an issue, right.
28:36 - Speaker 2
You don't want to be attached to that, Pick a new. Source. There's great names. There's old prophets in the Bible. You could name your kids. Source there's great names. There's old prophets in the Bible. You could name your kids after. There's a. You know, there's all the hobbits in a Lord of the Rings. Some great names there.
28:49 - Speaker 1
Pick something else. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, hey, it's time for lunch. Ak 47.
28:54 - Speaker 2
This doesn't work. Alexi Kalashnikov, that's the AK I. That's the AK I understand.
29:01 - Speaker 1
We gave a tip not long ago on the radio show about a great way to test a baby name is to go to a Starbucks and when they ask you for your name on the coffee cup, you remember this. You remember this, I do.
29:13 - Speaker 2
Yeah, they give the name that you're thinking about for your baby and then, when they finish your drink.
29:16 - Speaker 1
They'll say you know, yeah, so this is so dark Beretta, but imagine if the guy for your baby. And then when they, when they finish your drink, they'll say you know, yeah, but so this is so dark.
29:23 - Speaker 2
My thought, beretta, imagine the guy's yelling shooter, shooter and everybody's hitting the deck.
29:30 - Speaker 1
I know it's dark, but think about that I know, yeah, yeah, yeah shooter get down, I go, yeah, or just gun yeah, oh my gosh all right. So that's the latest on that pick a family man.
29:43 - Speaker 2
Pick a great aunt.
29:45 - Speaker 1
Name your kid after the great aunt like I said, this will be a conversation starter for you because it has become one for us. Um, we, we now have a, an odd product. We're all about productivity, we're all about, uh, you know, personal development, all that stuff. You know health, wellness, longevity, and and focus is hard because so hard of all the distractions that we have now.
30:05
In fact, one of the most popular books out there given I've recommended it before is Cal Newport's Deep Work. It's about how to just take a moment during the day. It could be a half hour, it could be six hours, like writer author Ryan Holiday and do deep work. But now there's a hack that will help you buckle down and focus. You just stop what you're doing and you take 10 minutes to play ping pong or cornhole. So, according to UCLA scientists, moving your arms quote-unquote for 10 minutes triggers the release of endorphins and those endorphins increase your ability to focus by 80% for two hours. And I was thinking they would say I didn't see cornhole coming. It's like ping pong, tennis, badminton, something like that. But no, they're recommending that's the beanbag.
30:57 - Speaker 2
It's beanbag toss, you throw it on a little wood slat with a hole in it.
31:00 - Speaker 1
I don't think we ever saw this in New York. No, there's not enough room to play cornhole in New York, you need at least 15 feet of unencumbered space Folks, if you're with me, we played stickball and ring olivio, but no cornhole. How big is the playing field for this?
31:18 - Speaker 2
thing, you put them 15, 20 feet apart and then you toss them, by the way, not to go off on a tangent here, they used to throw.
31:26 - Speaker 1
I think, we're on one. Yeah, did they used to throw corn?
31:29 - Speaker 2
cobs.
31:30 - Speaker 1
I'm sure they were like corn cob sacks, because you throw the beanbags but I'm sure they used to have one point where full of something else.
31:36 - Speaker 2
But on ESPN now they they have the world championship cornhole. They do not. And the people that play are so good, it's insane. I have. I'm a big fan of backyard games and tailgating, so I've played my fair share of cornhole, my fair share of ping pong in my day. The people that are really good at this are insane. I mean like they can not just get it in the hole, but get it in the hole without knocking anybody else's beanbag that's hanging over the hole. They are so good at it, it's unbelievable is there money exchanging hands here, gambling?
32:08
I mean, I'm sure there's gambling, I'm sure there, there's, you know, billions in sponsorship dollars do these people look like they're in shape, or they do not, it looks very similar to like bowling there's some people who are fit and some people who are three inches away from an aneurysm, so that it's it's both, but the point is that they're all super focused because that process helps you focus we see this in like silicon valley companies too, because they put the, they put the beanbags, foosball, foosball, cornhole, it's all in the lobby there and those guys.
32:44
They got to go up in code for 17 more hours. So there's got to be something to it, yeah.
32:48 - Speaker 1
Okay, well, hopefully it'll never hit the Olympics.
32:51 - Speaker 2
Oh, I bet you Watch this 2030, it'll be there.
32:54 - Speaker 1
Okay, that's all we got today. We thought we would love to have you as a regular subscriber so you can get notified every time we launch an episode. And hey, listen, if you wanted to learn how to play a song on the piano or keyboard, I can make that happen for you. The new online course is called the John Tesh Piano Method Learn how to Play Piano. Learning my Songs you can learn songs from all seven of my PBS specials. But hey, who wouldn't want to learn how to play the NBA basketball song right now?
33:27 - Speaker 2
Come on, come on, I can teach you how to do that. You could play it along while your friends are playing court hall. Oh, he sinks the topper Topper. Yeah, if you get a beanbag in on top of somebody else's, it's a topper. You can take their points. You know way too much about this. I love backyard games.
33:45 - Speaker 1
I knew you knew baseball, but cornhole, oh yeah, you can find my piano course at Teshcom, and no reference at all to cornhole.
33:58 - Speaker 2
Thanks for joining, not yet.