January 22, 2014 - Charles Duhigg

EPISODE NUMBER: 10051 (January 22, 2014)
GUEST: Charles Duhigg
SEGMENTS: Intro- 1/22/14 | Mystery Doughnut on Mars | Tip/Wag - Air Force, Dr. Keith Ablow & Westminster Dog Show | Tikker Death Watch | Charles Duhigg | Sign Off - Mutt
SUIT REPORT: Dark Grey Suit | White Shirt | Red Diamond Pattern Tie
VIDEOS: Wednesday, January 22, 2014

“Who’s an inferior canine? You are! You are! Want a little martian?”

Intro - 1/22/14

Tonight! Can we trust the people with their finger on the button? I don’t know, where’s their other finger?

Then, a new way to live life to the fullest. Continue sitting on the couch to find out.

And my guest, journalist Charles Duhigg says we make many of our decisions out of pure habit. Not true. I make most of my decisions out of pure spite.

The recent blizzard cracked a giant glass panel at New York’s Apple Store. They can get it fixed for free, if they don’t tell Apple it got wet. This is The Colbert Report.

 

Mystery Doughnut on Mars

• We got 11 inches of snow and that’s in freezing cold weather, ‘cause normally it’s like 15 inches.

NASA scientists found a rock that just kind of appeared out of nowhere and they say it’s the size of, and looks like a jelly doughnut.

• Mars has doughnuts. We have finally found a habitable planet, call off the search for water and start looking for a lake of Coolatta.

For our west coast viewers, a Coolatta is kind of like a Frappuccino.

• This space pastry or “spastry” is good news for NASA because it’s hard to find someone willing to sit in a tin can for six months to get to Mars, but we know people will wait any amount of time for a Cro-nut.
• Someone needs to broker peace between these two planets so I have volunteered. On my way to work this morning, I picked up a Martian.

• That did not go as well as I had hoped.

Tip/Wag - Air Force, Dr. Keith Ablow & Westminster Dog Show

• Nation, there’s an old saying, opinions are like Demo tapes, I don’t want to hear yours.

Apparently, the Air Force nuclear officers were caught cheating but it was revealed because they were being drug tested.

• How do you cheat at Nuclear weapons? Do you write ‘push red button’ on the back of your hand?

Dr Keith Ablow says that we are now experiencing ‘data rage’. He blames the recent shooting in a Florida movie theatre on our obsession with data. (?) Does he not realize the guy who shot the man was not the one using any data gadget?

Then, the Westminster Dog show is allowing mixed breed dogs for the first time ever.

I’m guessing there was something about a turtle named Shelly during the pre-show Q&A. If anyone was at the taping, fill us in!

Tikker Death Watch

It’s a watch that tells you how much time you have left to live. How weird. I don’t really want that. I predict it will have the opposite effect. I think I’d sit around all day long staring at the watch.

Stephen tries to have some fun by celebrating his birthday early and looking at his death watch.

Interview - Charles Duhigg

Stephen: You want a cookie right now don’t you?
Charles: I kinda do want a cookie right now.

I am a student of Applied Behavior Analysis. I think a lot of what he’s saying about cues and triggers and rewards is similar to the approach of ABA, but he’s approaching it from more of a neurological point of view. The thing is, there is already so much literature out there on the subject of behaviorism, that I am not sure what new insights his book has, but I will peruse it to see.

Charles: So think about it, are you eating the cookie because you’re hungry, in which case you could have an apple work just as well…

Stephen: SHUTUP! Shutup. You seem like a lot of fun. ‘Here kids, Happy Halloween! Here’s your apple’.

The one thing I will really say for sure is that I now have to go make some cookies.