Episode 30: Social Inclusion and Well-Being

This month, we dive into social bonds and their effects on longevity. Joshua Conrad Jackson, Uyen Nguyen, and Cameron Spencer consider how having extraordinary experiences can make you feel socially excluded and whether religious people live longer. Listen on our website or your favorite podcast app.

Don't feel left out! Join our hosts, contributors, and other listeners on our Subreddit at /r/usefulscience to talk about the episode and more.

Our Top Summaries This Month

Every position of a Rubik’s Cube can be solved in 20 moves or less. SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics.
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College students who reported being chronically sleep deprived had lower GPAs and were less likely to graduate, especially when the sleep deprivation occurred during the senior year. Preventive Medicine.
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Adolescents with type 1 diabetes were better at self-managing their condition when they checked their blood sugar levels at the same time as feeding a pet fish twice a day. This was especially effective for 10-13 year olds. The Diabetes Educator.
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Even though 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, survival rates have been improving over the last three decades. However, black women are still 40% more likely to die from breast cancer than white women in the U.S. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
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Adults who regularly sleep 9 or more hours, nap more than 90 minutes a day, or have poor sleep quality have an increased risk of stroke. Neurology.
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FROM EPISODE 30: SOCIAL INCLUSION

Religious people tend to live longer than non-religious people, partly due to greater engagement in community and volunteer activities. Social Psychological and Personality Science.
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Young adults felt worse and more socially excluded than they expected after talking about an extraordinary experience with a group who had shared an ordinary experience. This is possibly because people tend to bond more easily over common experiences. Psychological Science.
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For more science summaries, visit us at usefulscience.org.

Episode 29: Antibiotics
Susan Rogers Van Katwyk, Avaneesh Narla, and Cameron Spencer discuss how the food and pharmaceutical industries are contributing to antibiotic resistance on Episode 29, plus what you can do to keep your gut microbiome healthy.

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