Guess what, mango?
What's that?
Will?
So have you heard that mothers and babies can actually synchronize their heartbeats just by smiling.
At each other?
Mm hmm.
This is from Gizmoto. But apparently and they were researchers in Israel, and they were looking at mothers and their children, and they had the mothers interact with their three month olds in various ways. So they were monitoring their cardiac output as they did this, and when they gazed at each other and smiled, they quote coordinated their heart rhythms within lags of one second.
Isn't that wild? That's insane.
I mean, you know, other animals can do this through contact, but humans, and specifically mothers and infants, seem to be the only ones who can sync up just by looking at each other affectionately. But today's Nine Things is a Mother's Day tribute, including a few of history's best moms, why we love them so much, and what makes them so special?
So let's dig in.
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh hot Ticketter and sitting behind the soundproof glass reading his copy of Yo Mama's So Extraordinary, A Treasury of Yomama Compliments. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, i'd not seen this book before, Mango.
Have you seen this?
Yeah, it's a pretty great and he was actually reading some earlier and they are way better than Yo Mama jokes actually really yeah, because they're all compliments. But it's all like your mama is so extraordinary, right right. The only joke about moms that I ever really remember isn't like a standard joke, but one that our old boss, Felix Dennis made and he both loved and was terrified
of his mom. And when he was describing her to us, I don't know if you remember this, but he said she looks and acts like Margaret Thatcher without any of the soft bits.
I just tried to remember that.
Ye. Yeah, But today's show is obviously a celebration of moms, and I know that we used to say that when we first started Metal Floss the only people who subscribed were your mom, my mom, and two hundred of our mom's friends.
And it sounded like a joke, but it wasn't really a joke.
It wasn't at all.
And we obviously have so much to thank our own moms Paula and Lalita for well.
And of course we have wives who are wonderful mothers as well, So lots of moms and our lives to be grateful for.
But let's kick this off.
So I started the show with a quick fact about heartbeats.
So where do you want to take it from there?
Sticking with the science theme, here's the fact I learned from Sithsonian about teenage drivers. Now, apparently kids drive much safer when their moms are nearby, which I guess makes sense. And basically, the test was set up so that kids would be on this simulation and then they'd drive up to a yellow light, and when their moms were around, they tend to stop for the red, but if they
were alone, they'd punch the accelerator and race through. But what's interesting about the experiment is how their brains were rewarding them for their driving. So when they were alone, scans shown that the brain's reward center actually lit up when they ran the yellow light, but when they were with their moms, the same thing happened if they hit the brakes.
Oh wow, that's pretty interesting.
Well, you know, our brains are actually rewarding us when we listen to our moms or do the things we think will impress them. Well, since we're talking so much about the science of moms, here's one fact that comes from The Guardian, and it covers the scientific reason why moms hear their babies cry before others do.
So. I don't know if this is where you're going with us, but my wife and I used to fight about this when Henry and Ruby were babies, because I'm.
Actually not a very heavy sleeper.
But when our kids were infants, Lizzy used to accuse me of like never getting up or never hearing the babies like little muse, especially when they were tiny.
Maybe that was true.
I was also surprised, like I couldn't hear them as well, because she's not.
That light a sleeper.
But I'm excited to go home and settle some long simmering arguments if your science is in my favors, so I'm going to let you go on.
Well, as you've probably read, ox level spike in a mother's brain after she gives birth, but studies from NYU show that this actually affects the way the brain processes and interprets auditory signals and will make a mom much more sensitive to a baby's cries.
That's pretty fascinating.
So does oxytocin give you like superheroing if you inject some into a mail as well?
Yeah, I'm not sure about that. But the scientist did inject the oxytocin into virgin mice, and they saw their mothering instincts kick in. Not only did they respond quickly to baby mice squeals, but they had an urge to help them, often carrying them to their nest on their backs.
Well I like that, and let's move off science for a second and talk about Mother's Day itself. Now, you might know that Mother's Day was launched in America at least by Anna Jarvis. And you might have also heard that by the end of her life she hated Mother's Day and had turned against it. But I actually didn't
remember the details about this, so here are a few of them. Basically, Anna's mom, an was a Civil War nurse, and she cared for soldiers on both sides of the divide, and she even tried to orchestrate this peace day between moms of soldiers. It was called Mother's Friendship Day, and so it was supposed to unite people from the Union and
the Confederate side. But when she passed, Anna was struck by the number of cards and notes she got about her mom, and she actually decided to celebrate her mom and all moms by creating a day for them Mother's Day. But what's interesting is sort of the derision she got from senators and all this pushback, and this is according
to Jonathan Mullnix's research. But one Colorado senator, this guy named Henry Moore Teller, he called the day puerile, absolutely absurd, and he declared, every day with me is a Mother's Day. So he was annoyed by this, and then he actually had support from this New Hampshire senator who was also insulted by the day, and he complained as though the memory of my late mother could only be kept green by some outward demonstration on Sunday May tenth.
Goodness, I mean, obviously there was a lot of resistance. So how did she make Mother's Day a thing?
Basically, she got florists on her side. She also had the backing of Sunday schools and other organizations too. So the resolution finally swept through Congress when I went through in nineteen fourteen, but she was sort of in the pocket of Big Flower, and they ran with it, like not only did they have her talk at conventions and on a speaking tour, but they actually started marketing white carnations as a tribute to mom's who'd passed away, and colorful,
bright ones for your mom if she's alive. But you know, as the day became more and more commercialized and less about this respectful and also reflective day for thinking about your mom, Anna Jarvis got more and more incensed, and eventually she wished she could take the day back. In fact, there's this one great scene where she's at Wanamaker's department store in Philly and she ordered a Mother's Day salad because she saw it on the menu and it was just like a typical salad. When she got it, she
was so angry. She stood up, she dumped it on the floor, threw her money down, and then huffed out. And wow, it was like any little commercial use of Mother's Day, especially the dumb ones like a Mother's Day salad, would just set her off for.
The I just love a good Mother's Day salad.
You know, I can't tell if she would have liked or hated Tristan's Yomama So extraordinary book. I'm guessing she probably would have hated it. But you know what's funny, I didn't realize there are so many other Mother's Days around the world, Like not everyone celebrates it on the same day, let alone the same month.
That is pretty interesting. So do you have any favorites?
You know, maybe Bolivia's because it has such an unusual origin. Apparently, when Bolivia fought for independence in the early nineteenth century, all the men were caught in the fighting. You know, many were dying or injured on the battlefields. But in coach Obamba, the moms wanted to do something. So on May twenty seventh they united to fight on Cornea Hill.
And while hundreds of them died in battle, that day that the heroines of Cornea took on the Spanish army is known in Bolivia as Mother's Day.
So here's a mom I wouldn't trust, but who I'm sure made her boy proud, and that's Jesse James's mom, Zerelda. So after James passed away, all these travelers used to come to at the outlaws grave, and often they'd give condolences to Jesse James's mom, and that's where she smelled opportunity. So Zerelda would pretend to be so touched by their actions, like they're coming all this way to pay their respects, that she'd offer to sell them Jesse's gun along with
a note of authenticity. And of course this was a huge scam, like she used to get these neighborhood boys to scavenge and steal guns for her, and then she'd just resell them. But as legend of the scam grew, the fake guns got their own reputation and they were called Zerelda's and now they're highly prized collectibles in their own right.
All right, Well, here's the fact I thought was interesting, and especially in light of Prince Harry's getting married. But Princess Diana once took the boys to Disney World and actually made them stand in lines.
Can you imagine this?
So she really tried to instill a sense of normalcy in their lives, and reportedly she'd take them for burgers and McDonald's, let their kids wear jeans and baseball hats. And this all tends to break protocol with what's allowed for a young prince uruse. What's less reported is that when they were at Disney, they rented out the entire tenth floor of the Grand Floridian and had to use the underground tunnels at Disney to get around because.
They'd get mobbed by the paparazzi, you.
Know, kind of like when we go and we have to reach the whole tenth floor. But anyway, Diana's making her kids wait in line for the roller coasters and rides was really part of her attempt to keep her kids grounded.
That's pretty amazing.
Well, we still got a few more facts for you, but first a quick break. Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about moms, So Will. There are obviously so many great stories and facts about moms. Mister Rogers' mom knit all the sweaters on the show that he used to wear, which is just, you know, the most Mister Rogers fact ever. And supposedly bonobo moms will shake their heads no at their baby chimps when the baby
chimps play with their food. But I do want to know what's your last mom fact that you're going to lay on us.
Well, I want to share this fact about Nancy Edison, who was Thomas Edison's mom, And there's this wonderful story that Thomas came home with a letter one day when he was seven, and this was from a teacher saying that he was aduled and wasn't bright enough. But when his mom read the letter, she instead said out loud that Thomas was a genius and the school was too small for his intellect and that he'd have to be
homeschooled instead. And then the story goes on that Thomas grew up believing that and only found out the real contents of the letter when he was an adult after his mom had passed away. Now the truth is a little less glamorous. Thomas Edison was in fact dyslexic and getting in trouble at school, and the teacher used a leather belt for discipline, and Thomas might have been on
the wrong end of it a few times. But when his mom realized the school wasn't right for him and that he had a learning disability, she pulled him from the school and educated him herself. As he put it, my mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had something to live for someone I must not disappoint.
And then he went on to make the first cat boxing video, right.
And the light Bulb BANNGO had a million other things.
So, anyway, what's your last?
Pat Well?
I like that Nancy Edison stood up for her son, but I don't think anyone stood up for their children the way Isaiah Thomas's mom, Mary has so. In nineteen sixty six, Mary was a single mom and mother of nine and she was at her home in Chicago when the Vice Lords, who is this notorious gang, came up to her front door and told her they were recruiting her sons. And this is according to the New York Times. The leader said, we want your boys. They can't be
walking around here and not being a gang. And Mary Thomas, who was five to four and one hundred and ten pounds so she's like a tiny woman, she just faced off against this guy and said there's only one gang here and that's the Thomas Gang. And I lead that. It's just amazing, right, And then when they didn't leave, she went to their back of her high got a shotgun and said, get off my portrait. I'll blow you across the expressway.
No way, it's nuts, and.
For some reason they stopped their recruiting efforts. But by all accounts, she was a really tough woman, and when people would tell her that gangs were facing off, she'd actually just walk in between them and settle the disputes. Apparently she was the only mom Bobby Knight was ever afraid of. But all her kids actually graduated school as well, which in itself was amazing. I was reading about Isaiah and that he actually had to ride ninety minutes to
school every day. He had to take two transfers on trains and buses just to get to high school, and she made sure he was there always.
And she also made him.
Sign a contract that he'd finished his college degree, and even though he left early for the NBA, he honored that and secretly went back to school just to make her happy.
So she's just kind of a remarkable woman.
Yeah, and I think i'd actually heard they refer to their mom as deer, right, which was short for mother deer.
Yeah. I mean, there's tons of praise for Isaiah Thomas' mom, But who do you think she'd win this week's Nine Things?
You know what, I want to make sure both of our moms stay proud and happy. So I think maybe both of us should get it. What do you think, or Tristan or do you know what Tristan? And is your mom's jokes, So maybe we'll give it to Tristan. I think our moms will understand. But a happy Mother's Day to our moms, to our sisters, to our grandmoms, to all the other moms out there, and of course the other mother figures out there.