Why We Buy Cheap Stuff - Then Regret It & Important Clues About Your Health

There’s an art — and a surprising amount of psychology — behind giving a great compliment. When done well, flattery can strengthen relationships, build trust, and make people more receptive. When done poorly, it can feel awkward or manipulative. This episode begins with what research says about how to give and receive compliments the right way. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evidence-based-living/202109/the-psychology-compliments-nice-word-goes-long-way Americans buy an astonishing amount of cheap stuff — souvenirs, knick-knacks, novelty items, gadgets — most of which quickly lose their appeal and end up forgotten in drawers or closets. Why are we so drawn to these things in the first place? And why do they so often disappoint us? Wendy Woloson joins me to explain the deep cultural, emotional, and historical forces behind our love of “cheap crap.” She’s an associate professor of history at Rutgers University–Camden and author of Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America (https://amzn.to/3M9M9WM). When it comes to health, many people may be thinking about exercise all wrong. Staying healthy isn’t just about gym workouts or formal exercise — it’s about how much you move throughout the entire day. Small movements, done consistently, can have a powerful impact on longevity and overall fitness. Juliet Starrett explains why everyday movement matters more than you think and how to easily build it into your routine. She’s co-author of Built to Move (https://amzn.to/3ZwADHH) and host of The Ready State podcast.(https://thereadystate.com/podcasts/) And finally — if you’re someone who doodles while listening, you may not be distracted at all. Research suggests doodling can actually improve focus and memory. We wrap up with why letting your pen wander may help your brain pay better attention. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-power-of-the-doodle-improve-your-focus-and-memory-1406675744 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Mike Carruthers?

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• 1:23Mike Carruthers?

  Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need the right hire fast? Then this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Today on Something You Should Know, the art of giving and receiving a great compliment. Then, why is it that Americans love knickknacks, gadgets, souvenirs, and all kinds of cheap crap?

• 1:58Speaker 01

  Certainly, the market in the United States has been the most enthusiastic. Our key purchasers of crap, and we have been since the 19th century, I would say that we do crap better than any other culture.

• 2:12Mike Carruthers?

  Also, what doodling does to your concentration. And some very cool things about your health and fitness you may not know, like the sit and rise test.

• 2:23Speaker 02

  And the sit and rise test is based on a great study that showed your ability to get up and down off the ground is a predictor of your longevity. The test basically involves crossing your legs and sitting down and then getting back up from that position without putting a knee or a hand on the floor.

• 2:39Mike Carruthers?

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• 3:22Mike Carruthers?

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• 4:22Mike Carruthers?

  Hi, welcome to Something You Should Know. I want to start today by talking about the importance of compliments, because it turns out that flattery really can get you somewhere. The art of a compliment is a powerful social skill, and it can generate some significant positive energy if you do it correctly. According to Psychology Today Magazine, "You don't need to be an expert on this, you just need to be genuine. The more specific the compliment is, the better." For example, it would be better to say, "The way you handled that question at the meeting was brilliant", rather than say, "Hey, nice job in there." Compliments on appearance are fine. They can make people feel good and put them at ease.

• 5:06Mike Carruthers?

  If you're the recipient of a compliment, try not to take it for granted. Women in particular often discount a compliment by downplaying it or denying it. That just sucks the energy away from someone else's good intention. Take advantage of that positive moment. Smile and say "thank you", and accept the compliment for both your sakes. And that is something you should know.

• 5:34Mike Carruthers?

  I bet that if I went into your home and looked around, I would find drawers, boxes, closet shelves, full of crap. Knickknacks, gadgets, toys, souvenirs from trips, a lot of cheap stuff that you've purchased over the years. And I'm not being judgmental here, because if you came to my house, you would find the same stuff. Well, different stuff, but, you know, same crap. Why? Why do we buy this cheap stuff? Why do we keep it? And why don't we ever learn that buying and keeping this cheap stuff is a total waste of money and space? Well, that is a fascinating topic, and one that my guest has researched thoroughly. Wendy Wallison is an Associate Professor of History

• 6:18Mike Carruthers?

  at Rutgers University Camden, and author of the book, Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America. Hi Wendy, glad you could be here.

• 6:28Speaker 01

  Hi, thanks for having me.

• 6:30Mike Carruthers?

  So what makes crap crap? What's your definition of it?

• 6:34Speaker 01

  To me, crap consists of goods that are cheaply made, made not to last, made of inferior products, and are what I call cynically produced. They often promise more things than they actually deliver and end up disappointing people in the end. So what might be crappy to me isn't necessarily crappy to you.

• 7:03Mike Carruthers?

  You know, my sense is that we're much more forgiving of ourselves and the crap that we buy compared to like your neighbor buys something and you're like, oh my God, why would he ever buy that crap? But you've got crap that he's probably saying the same thing about.

• 7:19Speaker 01

  In my research, I came across people in the 19th century complaining about other people's consuming decisions and the fact that other people didn't know how to spend their money, but they themselves were very good judges of how to spend their money. And I think that's true today, too. We can justify our own frivolous purchases much more easily than, to use your word, than we can forgive other people's dubious purchases. And some things, a lot of crappy things, are kind of inexplicable. It's really hard to figure out why they were produced, what they're for, why they even need to exist. Beer koozies with boobs on them, plastic vomit.

• 8:04Speaker 01

  Like, why do we need this stuff?

• 8:07Mike Carruthers?

  Well, clearly we don't, but we have it anyway. So, but why do we have it? Why do we have plastic vomit and crass beer koozies? Why?

• 8:17Speaker 01

  I'm not sure if I have ever been able to answer the the plastic vomit question, but those are like props for humor. And I think we we feel sometimes like we we need to have these humorous outlets. And things like those objects are kind of easy to purchase and they're easy to understand and they're easy to deploy. It's not only cheaply produced, but it's cheap to purchase. So there is very little risk in purchasing these things, even if we only think we're going to use them once. It's easy for me to take a chance on this thing that might revolutionize my life in some way, and it might not.

• 8:59Speaker 01

  But if I only pay a few bucks for it, that's no big deal.

• 9:04Mike Carruthers?

  So when you look back, when did crap start? If if there's a starting point?

• 9:09Speaker 01

  In the United States, I think the first crappy things that I've seen would include costume jewelry, which starts to be produced in the late 18th century.

• 9:21Mike Carruthers?

  Really? So costume jewelry is the beginning of crap? And and then what happens?

• 9:26Speaker 01

  Very quickly, the cheap goods market expands. And a lot of that is because with the lifting of the embargo after the War of 1812, we were importing a lot of goods from Great Britain. And those goods were shut up in British warehouses. And then there was this like pent up surplus. And so British goods were dumped onto American markets in the late 18 teens, 1820s. And a lot of these things were manufactured as cheap goods, sort of shoddily made, produced goods.

• 10:08Speaker 01

  And others were things like textiles that had sort of faded over time, books whose pages had gotten brittle, things that couldn't be sold in the British marketplace. So they brought them over here. And Americans loved this stuff.

• 10:24Mike Carruthers?

  So stuff nobody wanted in Britain fed the desire in America for for crap? Which which makes me wonder, is is crap, is the collection, the purchase and collection and storage of crap, an American thing primarily?

• 10:42Speaker 01

  You know, that's a really good question, and I get that a lot. And it's a question I can't really answer fully. What I can say is that certainly the market in the United States has been the most enthusiastic. Our key purchasers of crap, and we have been over time since the 19th century. And we devote more of our domestic space to our crap and our clutter. Even just if we think about in today's terms, we are the largest consumers of storage units.

• 11:21Speaker 01

  So I see it as we rent little apartments for our stuff, the stuff that we can't accommodate in our own households. I would say that we do crap better than any other culture.

• 11:36Mike Carruthers?

  We win the award. There is something about buying crap, particularly like when you go on a trip. Like if you go to Hawaii, you want a souvenir of your trip. And one way to get a souvenir of your trip is to buy the keychain or the little hula dancer to hang on your mirror, or the coasters that say Waikiki on them. And they're really kind of lousy souvenirs, and you're probably going to end up throwing them out, but you feel compelled to buy it.

• 12:06Speaker 01

  Oh, for sure. I mean, that's really kind of the basis of souvenir culture, isn't it? For the most part, we do buy these crappy little mementos of our trip, of this extraordinary time that we've had to bring back to our kind of normal, everyday lives to remind us. Yeah, magnets, keychains, funky hats. Of course, ironically, usually not made in the place where you buy them. Most of the stuff is made in China, whether you buy it in Hawaii or at Niagara Falls. But that doesn't seem to matter so much as this token kind of being a memory object

• 12:51Speaker 01

  of our experience.

• 12:54Mike Carruthers?

  One of the characteristics, it seems to me, of crap is it's always disappointing. Like, it never lives up to what you think it's gonna be. The souvenir you bring back from your trip never really reminds you of your trip that much. And it's just so many of these things don't live up to the hope or the promise. Right? I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of examples.

• 13:20Speaker 01

  A gadget, you know, will promise to make some task quicker, easier, more enjoyable. Or a lot of gadgets promise to do like eight things in one. And the, but the reality is that the eighth thing in one gadget might do one thing okay, but probably doesn't do any of those things very well. And the gadget that promises to make our work more enjoyable and easier will often create more work. You know, if it's a, if it's a kitchen gadget, it might require like all this cleaning,

• 14:04Speaker 01

  or it just might not work very well, or it just takes more time in some other way. So the promise, the gadget falls far, far short of what it promises. In the case of collectible objects, those are kind of crappy in a different way because they promise to be investment objects often, but the kinds of mass-produced collectibles that people like to purchase, collectible coins, figurines, you know, Beanie Babies. In my book, I talk about the Beanie Baby bubble.

• 14:43Speaker 01

  People had, had a promise that these things were going to appreciate in value. And some people even invested their retirement money in these collectibles. And in the end, there was no resale value for a lot of these things. So those things were crappy in a different kind of way.

• 15:05Mike Carruthers?

  There are some things that I think you would categorize as crap. There's a picture of them in your book, like the little porcelain dolls that you think of Grandma has on her piano, kind of thing. But they're not cheaply made, or many of them are not cheaply made. They last forever. They don't fit the real description of your description of crap. And they do exactly what they're supposed to do. They sit on the piano. That's it. So, you know, promise delivered.

• 15:34Speaker 01

  Right. It probably sounds like I'm being really judgy. And by calling these things crap, of course, there is a judgment in that word. But I'm really trying to understand these objects, rather than being so judgmental about them. And as I said before, like, what might be crappy to me might not be crappy to you. So, something that, to me, is just kind of a worthless knick-knack that I have to dust might be this really sentimental figurine to you.

• 16:07Mike Carruthers?

  We're talking about crap today. The crap in your house, and why it's still there. And I'm speaking with Wendy Wallison. She's author of the book, Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America.

• 16:20Speaker 03

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• 17:17Mike Carruthers?

  So Wendy, when you talk to people about their crap, what do they say? What, in the light of day of looking at these purchases that were clearly not the savviest purchases, how do people feel about their crap? What do they tell you?

• 17:34Speaker 01

  Um, that's a, that's a great question. What I find is that people are often really bemused by their stuff. Like, they'll just admit, like, "Yeah, this thing is crappy. Yeah, I shouldn't have spent money on it." Or, "Can you believe that I bought this thing?" And, you know, sometimes people will make ironic purchases. They'll buy things specifically because they know they're crappy. I think because a lot of the things I'm talking about are so inexpensive, they become this very kind of throwaway thing. And so, um, there's a frivolity to them that I think people are comfortable laughing about.

• 18:15Speaker 01

  So I don't, I don't encounter a lot of, of shame with people with crap. They mostly just laugh and admit that, yeah, they've got crappy stuff.

• 18:25Mike Carruthers?

  I don't know if this is human nature or what, but every home, I think, in the United States has something like a junk drawer, where we keep this stuff. It's like a tribute to your topic of crap. We keep broken things. We keep broken pens and pencils. We keep watches that don't work anymore. We keep them in our junk drawer. And there's this resistance to getting rid of them. That, and by putting them in the junk drawer, kind of that's where they belong. But they still don't work. They don't do anything, but we can't let them go.

• 19:02Speaker 01

  You know, it's funny you mention that. For some reason, I've been thinking a lot about junk drawers lately. And you're absolutely right. Like, the, the objects in junk drawers live in a kind of purgatory. Because we put them in this thing that we call the junk drawer, and they're just miscellanes, right? Rubber bands and thumbtacks and toothpicks and twist ties and pens that don't work, to your point. And yet, we just can't throw them away. There's something about our needing to hold on to them. I don't know if it's because we think that maybe they'll have some use value at some point.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  You know, like, oh, as soon as I throw that twist tie away, I'm gonna need it and then I'm gonna regret it. But we often consign these things to a specific drawer. And it's kind of a smaller version, I think, of how we think about storage units. You know, we can't get rid of that stuff either, but yet we don't want to live with it. We don't want it in our houses. So we consign it to like a big junk drawer, a storage unit instead.

• 20:14Mike Carruthers?

  Well, it does seem, and I don't have any evidence to prove this, but it does seem that today, more than yesterday, we have a lot more disposable junk. We live in a more of a disposable society where as in earlier days, people had like quality stuff. They had really good stuff that they held on to.

• 20:36Speaker 01

  We're no longer caretakers of the stuff that we have. And I think that that's a real, that marks a real difference in how we used to live in the past. Things were handed down. People had fewer objects and they took better care of them. Clothes were refashioned, recut, restyled, sized down, handed down. Things could be repaired. Now, you know, everything is made of plastic or pressed wood. So you can't, you know, like an Ikea cabinet can't even be repaired. So our relationship to our material world is much different.

• 21:18Speaker 01

  And it's a much more disposable world now that we're living in.

• 21:24Mike Carruthers?

  It seems to me that one of the big drivers for all of this crap that we buy is the novelty of it. We see some new gadget that does things we've never seen before. Ooh, I've got to have that. I've never seen that before. And that's what drives the purchase of a lot of this, along with the advertising that puts it in front of our faces, because if we didn't know it existed, we wouldn't need it.

• 21:49Speaker 01

  Right. Novelty. Novelty plays a big role in this, and it has over time as well. We like new things, and we have very short attention spans as consumers. So as I mentioned before, like, a lot of our attraction to cheap goods, I think, is because it allows us to just constantly have this churn of the new. We have a desire, we can satisfy it, and then we can move on to a new desire, which is then easily satisfied as well. And even if goods disappoint us, especially crappy goods, which are going to disappoint

• 22:30Speaker 01

  us, that's OK, because my loyalty really isn't to this object, which I can easily cast off. My desire becomes aimed at something new. And so I can always sort of look for something different, novel, and, you know, always be changing up kind of the objects around me.

• 22:52Mike Carruthers?

  Talk about some of the most unusual, just subjectively, that you discovered, some of the fun things that you found that people actually buy or have bought.

• 23:04Speaker 01

  You know, there are things like the hydraulic potato peeler, which had a moment in the 1950s where it promised to peel potatoes instantly, and all you had to do was hook up this device to your faucet and turn on the water. And what it really did was it just sprayed this sort of macerated starch all over the kitchen and created a mess. I'm actually really kind of interested in the infomercials that are on today. You know, extra laminated copper, nonstick pans, or the brownie pans in the shape that

• 23:49Speaker 01

  gives you like crust all around. The garden weasel, the lawnmower that like mows the lawn and collects the leaves and mulches and does all these things. I just think, I think even if ultimately they're, they're useless, they're really kind of wonderful at the same time.

• 24:08Mike Carruthers?

  Is there, was there a golden age of crap? Or, you know, what's, what is the trend of crap? If, if, if there is such a thing, or just, crap is just crap and it comes and it goes?

• 24:22Speaker 01

  Since the 19th century, we've always had a lot of crappy stuff. And we still have a lot of crappy stuff. And we have stores dedicated to selling it, like dollar stores, which are not new. They, um, they emerged in the 19th century as well. So I suppose you could say that crap now has become even bigger business with, with chains dedicated to selling cheap stuff. We have places like Dollar Stores and Five Below. We have IKEA that sure sells cheap furniture that allows people to furnish their apartments

• 25:06Speaker 01

  if they can't afford to buy higher quality furniture.

• 25:11Mike Carruthers?

  But people who are old enough to remember can remember stores like Woolworth's, you know, the five and dime, the, and, and these were stores on, you know, Main Street, USA. These were not dollar stores that were kind of like on the outskirts of town. These were, you know, Main Street stores that did very well, but clearly they sold a lot of crap.

• 25:35Speaker 01

  Yeah. So, so Woolworth.

• 25:39Speaker 01

  Had this sort of brilliant insight, which is that if you put a lot of low-priced goods together and seed, what he called seeded the lot with a few nicer objects, people are going to want to buy everything. The cheap goods become as desirable as the more expensive goods because people kind of feel like they can find a treasure in there. And he had this like really, really brilliant insight and created entire stores

• 26:20Speaker 01

  that were filled with low-priced goods and a variety of goods. So you mix the variety, this sort of idea of miscellaneous, infinite novelty with low price, and it creates this thing in people's minds that they think they can find the secret treasure, the one like hidden thing of value in the store. And so that continues today in dollar stores. There's an interesting sort of consumer psychology there where, you know, you just sort of mix cheapness with variety, and that sells. It sold in the 19th century and it still sells

• 27:03Speaker 01

  today. One of the things that's interesting to me is that the way consumer psychology worked 100, 200 years ago is not that much different than how it still works today.

• 27:15Mike Carruthers?

  Well, it's quite a story, and I just find it so strange that we're so attracted to crap, and even after a lifetime of crap, we still buy more crap. I've been speaking with Wendy Wallison. She's an associate professor of history at Rutgers University Camden and author of the book Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff in America. And there's a link to that book in the show notes. Thank you, Wendy. Thanks for being here.

• 27:41Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 27:44Speaker 03

  What's on their wish list? It probably smells incredible. Gift them Sol de Janeiro's Shea Rosa Perfume Mist. Light, playful, and delicious scents for every mood and moment. Shea Rosa 62? Pistachio and Salted Caramel. 68? Pink Dragon Fruit and Brazilian Jasmine. 40? Black Amber Plum and Vanilla Woods. Give the gift of Sol de Janeiro's Shea Rosa Perfume Mist. Loved by everyone, perfect for anyone. Shop now on soldejano.com.

• 28:14Speaker 04

  Hey Spotify listeners. When you travel with American Airlines, you'll enjoy comfort and convenience at every altitude. Before takeoff, unwind in the Admirals Club Lounge with curated self-serve offerings of hearty bites and refreshments. In flight, stay connected with high-speed Wi-Fi. Sponsored by AT&T. Your journey is designed to feel easy from the moment you check in to the moment you arrive. No matter where you're going, American gets you there. Book now at aa.com.

• 28:42Mike Carruthers?

  It would be difficult to find someone, anyone, who didn't know that exercise and movement are good for the human body. Fitness is, by all indications, a very worthy goal because it has been linked to better health and longer life. But what does it mean to exercise? Is any exercise good? Is hard, strenuous exercise better? Do you really need an hour a day at the gym to do any good? Or does a walk around the block after dinner do something? Well, let's take a look at this because I think the answers may surprise you. Here to talk about this with me is Juliette Starrett. She is an attorney, professional athlete, and podcaster, and co-author of the book,

• 29:27Mike Carruthers?

  Built to Move. Hi Juliette, welcome.

• 29:31Speaker 02

  Hey Mike, thanks for having me.

• 29:33Mike Carruthers?

  Sure. So people are certainly exposed to a lot of messages promoting health and wellness and exercise. So do you think, since you're in the middle of all this, do you think people are getting the message and taking this to heart?

• 29:47Speaker 02

  Unfortunately, it does not seem like we are getting the message. You know, over the last 30 years, when the fitness, the health, fitness and wellness industry has really taken off, it's become a trillion-dollar industry. And yet simultaneously, if you look at literally any measure of health that you might care about, whether that's obesity, diabetes, sedentaryism, depression...

• 30:12Speaker 02

  ACL rates in ACL tear rates in children, low back pain. We are not doing well. Most of those statistics are trending downwards in that we are, we seem to be getting more and more unhealthy. And we are spending more time sitting and less time moving. And so it's not a pretty picture right now. And it seems like in the health and fitness and wellness industry of which we, we live and breathe and have been working for the last 25 years. I would say it would give us maybe a C grade in terms of how we're doing. I think we're trying to get the message out there that people should move more and take care of their health. But it somehow isn't resonating and it's not working in people's time crunch lives.

• 30:55Speaker 02

  People are going to the gym, but they aren't moving enough throughout their day.

• 31:00Mike Carruthers?

  Well, they're joining the gym, which is more proof that people get the message, they hear the message. But I'm told from people that work in that business, that a lot of their profit comes from people who join gyms, but never go or seldom go because, because they don't.

• 31:18Speaker 02

  You know, people really didn't start joining gyms en masse until the early 90s. You know, there was some aerobics and YMCA's in the 80s, but it wasn't until the 90s that people really started joining gyms. And simultaneously, our obesity rates have continued to climb. So that really got us thinking, what's the message here? What's going on here? People are getting the message that they should exercise in a formal way by, you know, putting, you know, putting on their shoes and driving to the gym. But somehow that's not moving the needle in terms of our overall health.

• 31:51Mike Carruthers?

  Isn't it interesting that there is so much money spent promoting health and fitness on television? And just, you know, when you see all these fitness models in magazines and promoting, let's all get healthy. And some people buy into it. And yet overall, we hear that, that we're heavier and less healthy than we used to be.

• 32:12Speaker 02

  I think that this is yet another messaging problem we've had in the health and fitness business. If you look at most health and fitness accounts on the internet, you know, what people are touting is, you know, how strong your abs are, how ripped you look. Or, you know, what kind of diet is working for, you know, working to calorie restrict and, and make people the most jacked and tan looking, right? But what most people actually care about.

• 32:39Speaker 02

  Is feeling good in their body and that's very different for different people. And secondarily, most people don't want to be in pain. And that's a very common thing we see. And I think we've really missed the mark in our business by telling, by suggesting that people should care about being extremely lean, having ripped abs, strong butts, and that, you know, that's the way to feeling good and feeling healthy when it turns out it's not. And most people don't care about that.

• 33:10Mike Carruthers?

  So here's, here's a question I'd like you to tackle because it's one I've wondered about. If you look back at pictures, images, movies from earlier times, you know, 50 years ago and earlier, you don't see a lot of heavy people. And yet, in those times, people were not joining gyms. There wasn't a fitness craze. It's more just the way people were and they seem fitter and leaner. So what, what do you make of that?

• 33:40Speaker 02

  I, I would make two points here, Mike. The first is that we spend a lot of time reading about and researching the blue zones. And blue zones are those five or six areas around the world where people live the longest with the fewest chronic illnesses. And they've gotten a lot of attention in recent years. And there are some very common things that are, common things among each one of the blue zones. And one of those things is that physical activity is built into their daily life. And if you contrast that here in this country or in, you know, you know, in, in Europe and the UK, exercise has become a formal thing that we think we have to do in these one hour blocks, right?

• 34:24Speaker 02

  We have to strap on our gym shoes and get in our car and drive to the gym and do our orange theory class or lift weights. But what you see in these areas where people are living long without chronic illnesses. What they've done is create what we call a movement-rich environment in their life. So, so they're often not doing any kind of formal exercise, but instead they're continuing to move throughout their days and movement is built into their daily lives. You know, they're walking to the grocery store, they're getting outside, they're, you know, they're moving throughout their day in various ways. They're definitely not sitting all day long. And so this, this general movement is really common amongst cultures and people who live

• 35:08Speaker 02

  long and live without chronic illness. And this was really influential for us because I do think we've sent people the message that, hey, look, if you go to the gym for an hour, you've checked the box and you're healthy. But what's really missing is this movement-rich environment and creating opportunities for ourselves to continue moving throughout the day and shifting our mindset from thinking that if we don't have a full hour to exercise, we may as well do nothing. Instead, that, that these little five, 10-minute movement breaks we take, little walks after we eat can really add up and they can be compounding. And so we, for example, are huge fans of taking three 10-minute walks after you, you eat dinner.

• 35:53Speaker 02

  And that's additional 30 minutes a day. And if you compound that day after day, month after month, year after year, that's so much additional movement. And there's so many reasons why walking and additional movement are good for us above and beyond exercise.

• 36:07Mike Carruthers?

  And what would those be? I mean, what would be the benefits of exercise beyond the benefits of exercise?

• 36:14Speaker 02

  Well, I'll start with something that may be a little obscure, but the lymphatic system is the, is a little understood, but extremely important part of our body. And the simplest way to explain it is it's, you know, we have groceries in and garbage out and our lymphatic system is how we get the garbage out of our body. And as one example, anyone who's had surgery knows that one of the first things that you do in a hospital after you have surgery is they get you up and move you around. And the reason for that is that's going to help clear your lymphatic system. The only thing that effectively clears your lymphatic system is movement.

• 36:53Mike Carruthers?

  Address this idea because I think people have a sense that...

• 36:59Mike Carruthers?

  All these little things don't really add up. But you had said that there is a cumulative effect, that doing all these little movements adds up. So explain, what does it add up to? What is the cumulative effect?

• 37:14Speaker 02

  So in the 1960s, there was a Japanese pedometer company that actually popularized the idea of the 10,000 steps. And they actually did that as a marketing ploy to get people to buy their pedometer. But since that time, a massive amount of research has filled that in to show that the more you move, the longer you're going to live and the fewer chronic illnesses you're going to have. Now, what we know is the average American gets about 3,000 steps a day. And what we also know is that you can get most of the benefits of moving more at anything over 8,000 steps a day. We recommend that people move between 8,000 and 12,000 steps a day. But honestly, more is better.

• 38:00Speaker 02

  And that even though the 10,000 steps rule started off as a marketing ploy, there has been a ton of research to show that the more you move, the longer you're going to live and the less chronic disease you're going to suffer.

• 38:12Mike Carruthers?

  And yet, despite those rather impressive benefits, exercise and movement is still at the bottom of the list on people's priority, or not even on the list of people's priority. They would just rather do something else, maybe anything else other than exercise.

• 38:31Speaker 02

  One thing we know is that people cannot rely on willpower or motivation. That's been tried and tested in our environment. And we've learned that people don't, they only have so much willpower and motivation. And instead, they need to be able to rely on habits and creating environments where it's easy to make the right choice and it's hard to make a bad choice. The simplest example of that. Is that my husband Kelly loves cookies. And if we have cookies in the house, he's going to eat cookies. And so we do our best to make sure we have as few cookies around the house as possible. Because if he, if we have them, he's going to eat them. But we've tried to take that same principle and apply it to movement in our own lives.

• 39:16Speaker 02

  And try to help people. Figure out how they can apply it to movement in their own lives. And I'll give you a few examples. So we are huge fans of standing desks. But I think standing desks have been very misunderstood. And a lot of people went out and bought standing desks. They stood up for eight hours, they felt terrible and they, you know, they lowered their desk and they sat down again. And the reason that we like standing desks is not because we think sitting is bad or standing is necessarily good. But what we do know is that movement is good. And that if we set up our environment, so we're given more opportunity to move. We are more likely to do it. And so in our office, for example, every single desk is set at standing height.

• 40:00Speaker 02

  Now, we also have stools here available where people can sit and perch. But the default is to have your desk in a standing position, which makes it easier. To make choices about how we move throughout the day. So if there was a hidden camera following me all day long, you would see that I stand for part of the day. I'm actually standing during this podcast right now. I sit, I perch. But the key thing is, is that I'm moving in small ways throughout my day and I'm changing my position. Similarly, if you look at our house, we've set up our house and our living room. To give ourselves as much movement opportunity as possible. So in our book, our first chapter starts with what we call the sit and rise test.

• 40:43Speaker 02

  And the sit and rise test is, is based on a great study that showed. That your ability to get up and down off the ground is a predictor of your longevity. And the test basically involves crossing your legs and sitting down and then getting back up from that position without putting a knee or a hand on the floor. Because we value this position and think it's a predictor of our long-term health. We've set up our house so that it's easy for us to choose to sit on the floor and spend some time working on our mobility.

• 41:18Mike Carruthers?

  I know you said that the more movement, the better, but I think people like to have a sense of like, yeah, but how much like, what's the minimum amount of, what's the minimum that actually does something?

• 41:31Speaker 02

  Well, you know, I go back to the walking piece because to me, that is the place where we can best measure movement and the easiest way we can measure movement. Most people these days have a smartphone and/or they're wearing some kind of smart watch or some kind of technological tool where they can measure their movement and the best way to measure that is in walking. And so we are fans of the eight to 10,000 or eight to 12,000 step rule. And that's the way that people can really test whether they're getting enough movement and it's quantifiable. Now, we also of course are fans about, fans of continuing to move throughout our day

• 42:12Speaker 02

  in the form of standing and, you know, getting up and down off the ground and practicing our balance. But I think the easiest way for people to measure their overall movement is in their step count. And everybody has a tool these days that can tell them where they are and it's the best benchmark of whether or not we're getting enough movement. So I think sometimes the 10,000 step rule has, has created an environment where people think, well, I'm not going to make that, so I'm not even going to try. But the research shows that people can actually reasonably get 8,000 steps and they can do it. By just adding small amounts of walking throughout their day, like the 10-minute post-meal walk I talked about, or my husband and I take a 20-minute post-dinner walk every

• 42:57Speaker 02

  day, that those small, small walks added to any day can add up to 8,000 steps without actually having to schedule a one-hour formal walk into the day, that it can be added in as it can be, it can add up to 8,000 steps and you can get all the benefit of that movement at that level. So, so that's why we put that as the benchmark.

• 43:21Mike Carruthers?

  I know you talk about the connection between exercise and sleep, and since both are so important to health and they're so related to each other, explain how that all works.

• 43:34Speaker 02

  One of the downstream positive effects of getting more movement is you actually can fall asleep well and have a deeper and more high-quality sleep, right? So, so moving throughout your day is good for your overall health and longevity, but it also may help with your sleep. For example, we worked with Delta Force, an elite military unit, and when their unit is struggling to sleep, when anyone in the unit is struggling to sleep, the first order prescription they're given is to walk 10,000 to 15,000 steps a day. Because what they've learned is that additional movement adds up and actually triggers people

• 44:15Speaker 02

  to fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply. And so while, of course, all this movement throughout our day is good for our body, it clears our lymphatic system, it's good for our overall health and longevity, it also is good for your sleep.

• 44:30Mike Carruthers?

  Which is good for your health.

• 44:33Speaker 02

  Yes, it's all connected.

• 44:35Mike Carruthers?

  And interestingly, that feeling tired, lack of sleep, is one of the excuses people use to not exercise. And at least my experience is that exercise...

• 44:49Mike Carruthers?

  Rejuvenates you, it gives you energy, even if you don't feel like you're up to it, it'll make you feel better.

• 44:57Speaker 02

  The more people are able to actually incorporate these practices into their lives, the more energy overall they will feel. Because again, we're a connected system. You know, we believe that if you get seven to eight hours of sleep, if you actually eat some fruits and vegetables, and enough protein, if you spend a little time working on your mobility, if you walk enough, all these systems are connected. And in fact, you're going to actually have more energy.

• 45:25Mike Carruthers?

  Well, I think there's a real positive message here that it isn't all about strenuous weightlifting at the gym kind of exercise. If you want to be healthy and fit, that there's just so many more options that people don't think about, or they just don't think they'll do anything.

• 45:45Speaker 02

  There is so much that people can be doing to improve their health, and importantly, feel better and be able to do the things they want to do physically, that don't involve formal exercise, going to the gym, you know, following a really strict diet, that so many things that can really move the levers of health and of feeling good, can be incorporated into things you're already doing in your day, including during your workday. And I hope that that helps motivate people to realize that, again, they, you don't have to add a 20 item to do list to feel good in your body, that there are so many little things that

• 46:30Speaker 02

  have compounding value that you can do to feel better in your body now and in 20 and 25 years.

• 46:37Mike Carruthers?

  Great. It's a really good message. I've been talking with Juliet Starrett, who is an attorney, a professional athlete, a podcaster, and co-author of the book Built to Move. And there's a link to her book and to her podcast in the show notes. Thanks, Juliet.

• 46:53Speaker 02

  Thanks so much, Mike. Thanks for having us.

• 46:59Mike Carruthers?

  Sometimes, when I'm sitting here interviewing people for this podcast, I doodle. And I used to feel guilty about it, I guess because I've been told all my life that if you doodle, well, you must not be paying attention. But I actually think it helps me pay attention. And as it turns out, if you're in a meeting, or listening to a presentation, or in the classroom, and you doodle, it may in fact help your concentration. When researchers observed people who were asked to listen to boring phone messages, the people who doodled had better recall than the people who didn't. Well, the researchers speculated that doodling took just enough attention to keep the listener's

• 47:41Mike Carruthers?

  mind from wandering, but not so much attention as to be distracting. The doodling gave kind of a mental break from the task of listening, and in this way, doodling might improve your working memory. More recent studies have found that college and junior high school students who doodle recall more information than non-doodlers when listening to school lectures. So feel free to doodle, and that is something you should know. Hey, if you enjoyed this episode, and it gave you something to think about, the best compliment you can give, and the thing we appreciate the most, is if you share it with just one person, one person that you care about. That's how this show grows, and I'm really grateful when you do.

• 48:25Mike Carruthers?

  I'm Mike Herrothers, thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know.

• 48:31Speaker 05

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