Everything is Arbitrary

Erin Stewart

It's time to question everything you took for granted. This podcast takes you through the history of pervasive ideas to imagine how everything could have turned out so differently were it not for some arbitrary decisions, moments, ideologies, and beliefs.

Episódios

  1. Colour

    26/05/2020

    Colour

    Music from Danosongs This gif from Wikicommons is what to cast to mind when the topic of a prism dispersing a beam of white light comes up. Sources: Kassia St Clair’s The Secret Lives of ColorPhillip Ball’s Bright Earthhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light#/media/File:Light_dispersion_conceptual_waves.gifhttps://xkcd.com/273/http://brainden.com/color-illusions.htmhttps://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/apr/29/what-vocabularies-tell-us-about-culture?CMP=fb_guhttps://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/are-black-and-white-colorshttps://www.pantone.com/color-intelligence/color-education/color-iq-testhttps://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/11/how-pantone-became-a-pop-culture-icon/414043/http://theconversation.com/curious-kids-do-different-people-see-the-same-colours-107972https://www.thecut.com/2018/02/my-life-as-a-woman-with-colorblindness.htmlhttps://medium.com/@terossjr/indigos-indignity-16cd7ad1f54ahttps://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/gems-of-colour-pigments-of-the-%E2%80%98colourmen%E2%80%99https://slate.com/technology/2017/04/heres-why-people-saw-the-dress-differently.htmlhttps://www.jstor.org/stable/20203637http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/medieval.htmlhttps://www.the-scientist.com/foundations/newtons-color-theory-ca-1665-31931https://medium.com/a-history-of-color/the-debate-over-indigo-671a0154525ahttps://jezebel.com/the-history-of-pink-for-girls-blue-for-boys-5790638https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-did-girls-start-wearing-pink-1370097/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0beqeccEEFIhttp://ebdjournal.com/blog/health/mythbusting-colour-therapyhttps://neilpatel.com/blog/gender-and-color/https://theconversation.com/can-pink-really-pacify-102696https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140827-how-the-colour-red-warps-the-mind

    37 min
  2. Breakfast

    28/01/2020

    Breakfast

    Sources: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=cop-facbookshttps://www.vox.com/2016/1/14/10760622/nutrition-science-complicatedhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-do-we-eat-cereal-for-breakfast-and-other-questions-about-american-meals-answered-1565858/https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/05/what-is-breakfast/589411/https://www.nationalgeographic.com.au/history/cereal-masturbation.aspxhttps://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/when-it-comes-to-fiber-cereal-fiber-may-be-your-best-choice-201102251535https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/06/how-marketers-invented-the-modern-version-of-breakfast/487130/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/08/10/the-science-of-skipping-breakfast-how-government-nutritionists-may-have-gotten-it-wrong/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puILfPriFxEhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaLvVc1sS20https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/opium-war-1839-1842https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36781368https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-37936349https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-tea-partyhttps://www.diffordsguide.com/en-au/encyclopedia/1155/bws/english-breakfast-teahttps://www.bustle.com/articles/110861-how-old-is-coffee-the-first-caffeinated-beverages-might-be-1200-years-old-so-heres-ahttps://toriavey.com/history-kitchen/coffee-caffeinated-history/https://www.medibank.com.au/livebetter/be-magazine/food/the-history-of-orange-juice/https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/misunderstanding-orange-juice-as-a-health-drink/283579/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01459740.2016.1209752?scroll=top&needAccess=true

    49 min
  3. BMI

    07/01/2020

    BMI

    Apologies: I mispronounced Nick Trefethen's name. And possibly other names too. There was also an audio glitch at 24mins that's fixed now. Royalty free music from Danosongs Sources/Related Links: https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/trefethen/bmi.htmlhttps://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2014/jan/16/body-mass-index--discovered-by-a-belgian-astronomer-https://etherwave.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/hump-day-history-adolphe-quetelet-statistics-and-social-physics/https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2018/contents/bmi-where-do-you-fithttps://slate.com/technology/2009/07/why-are-doctors-still-measuring-obesity-with-the-body-mass-index.htmlhttps://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-useful-is-the-body-mass-index-bmi-201603309339https://www.self.com/story/weight-bias-and-health-carehttps://www.glamour.com/story/weight-stigma-is-keeping-patients-from-getting-the-care-they-needhttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170803092015.htmhttps://www.who.int/social_determinants/sdh_definition/en/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/26/health/obese-patients-health-care.htmlhttps://healthfeedback.org/evaluation/scientists-discuss-widely-shared-huffington-post-article-everything-you-know-obesity-wrong-michael-hobbes/https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/everything-you-know-about-obesity-is-wrong/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB105761372351532900https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/12/19/16742884/weight-loss-bariatric-surgery-pros-cons-storieshttps://medium.com/the-establishment/my-friends-would-rather-have-their-guts-cut-open-than-be-like-me-95a33a96d400http://suethsayings.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-dark-side-of-gastric-sleeve.htmlhttps://www.healthline.com/health/what-its-like-to-live-with-atypical-anorexia#3

    31 min
  4. Time

    01/01/2020

    Time

    Correction: although there were heliocentric theories (i.e. the Earth revolves around the sun) in antiquity, this was an unsettled matter until the Copernican Revolution.   Source Links: https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-telling-time-55408https://www.timeanddate.com/time/how-do-atomic-clocks-work.htmlhttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/04/16/the-interpreter-2http://www.aboriginalastronomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Hamacher-Thesis.pdfhttps://plumvillage.org/mindfulness-practice/mindful-apps/http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p266811/pdf/Vietnam.pdfhttps://abelamculture.wordpress.com/https://www.academia.edu/24249577/_Yam_Cycles_and_Timeless_Time_in_Melanesia._Ethnology_38_211-225_1999https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/theres-nothing-inherently-special-about-nye--except-uber-surge-pricing-20171230-h0bkg9.htmlhttps://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/persian-calendar.htmlhttps://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-calendar/https://www.history.com/news/soviet-union-stalin-weekend-labor-policyhttps://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/11/30/244995264/spains-been-in-the-wrong-time-zone-for-seven-decadeshttps://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/china-only-has-one-time-zone-and-thats-a-problem/281136/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/samoa/8984423/Samoa-skips-a-day-as-it-crosses-international-date-line.htmlhttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/03/daylight-savings-time-arizona-florida-spring-forward-science/https://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/the-strangest-oxford-tradition-of-all-making-sure-the-clocks-go-back-with-the-time-ceremony-8908472.htmlhttps://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/03/tired-of-daylight-saving-time-these-states-trying-to-end-clock-changes/  And books: David Graeber - B******t JobsSeneca - On The Shortness of Life  Music credits: Elevate from bensound.comTime Perception from purple-planet.comRoyalty Free Music by ANtarcticbreeze at soundcloud.comTime Rider by | e s c p | https://escp-music.bandcamp.com, promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com

    1h 10min

Sobre

It's time to question everything you took for granted. This podcast takes you through the history of pervasive ideas to imagine how everything could have turned out so differently were it not for some arbitrary decisions, moments, ideologies, and beliefs.