A Smarter Way to Make Big Life Changes & The Strange Rise of the House Cat

Why do leaves turn such spectacular colors every fall? It seems as if the green simply changes to red, orange or yellow — but that isn’t quite what happens. There is a lot more going on inside those leaves than you might imagine. Listen as I explain the fascinating process that creates the colors of autumn. https://www.weather.gov/dvn/climate_fall_colors

When you want to make a big change — lose weight, save money, get ahead at work, break a habit — the usual advice is to buckle down and try harder. But there may be a much smarter and easier way. Research shows that where you are and who you surround yourself with can dramatically change what you do and who you become. Angela Duckworth joins me to explain why changing your situation can sometimes be far more effective than relying on willpower — and how to deliberately put yourself in places and around people that bring out your best. Angela is a psychologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Her TED Talk is one of the most watched of all time, and her book Grit was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Her new book is Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best (https://amzn.to/4xvpE3g).

Cats are strange pets when you think about it. They can be affectionate one minute and act as if you don't exist the next. Yet humans have welcomed hundreds of millions of them into our homes. So how did this unlikely relationship begin? It turns out cats had something humans desperately needed — and humans had something cats wanted just as badly. Rod Phillips reveals the remarkable history of how cats worked their way into human civilization and ultimately into our homes and hearts. Rod is a professor of history at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and author of Cats: A History (https://amzn.to/3SEKrCi).

Why does food often taste so lousy on an airplane? You might blame the airline or whoever prepared your meal, but part of the problem is actually you. At 35,000 feet, something happens that can make perfectly good food taste surprisingly different. Listen and you may never judge airplane food quite the same way again. https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2014-04-03/why-airline-food-tastes-so-bad

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