Episode Description:

Watching a tense soccer match nearly doubles cardiac event risk, and cortisol could start rising fourteen hours before kickoff. With Spain just taking the World Cup, a fair portion of the world’s population has basically been running a biological experiment on itself.

Arielle and Karissa also get into the neurological reason summer keeps slipping away, an Oxford trial where eight weeks of salsa classes outperformed existing tools for depression and anxiety, and a brush swab for oral cancer that returns results in under an hour — no scalpel needed.

Stay tuned til the end for a wonderful Emissary Shout-Out that will brighten your day!

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Theme and all original music by Marvin Lanes

Transcript:

Arielle: 

Hello, I’m Arielle. 

Karissa: 

And I’m Karissa. 

Arielle: 

And welcome back to The Optimist Daily’s weekly roundup. How are you doing, Karissa? 

Karissa: 

I’m doing well. I can’t believe we’re already kinda close to the end of July. You know, summer days are great, but go by too quickly. 

Arielle: 

Yeah, there’s actually an article about that this week that we’re gonna talk about.

But also Karissa and I were just talking about our yearly calendar, and how we have so many things planned, and it’s just one thing after the other. 

Karissa: 

Mm-hmm. 

Arielle: 

And then suddenly we’re at December, and we’re like, “Oh my gosh, this year is basically over.” 

Karissa: Yeah, basically. 

I’m excited to see how the rest of the year plays out.

But how about you, Arielle? 

Arielle: 

I’m doing really well. I’m excited to go visit family later in August. 

Karissa: 

Ooh. 

Arielle: 

So that’ll be fun, and I have a girls’ trip planned, and I think it’s my first girls’ trip in, in a really long time. 

Karissa: 

Ooh. 

Arielle: 

We’re gonna go to Sicily and sip wine at the beach, and yeah, I think it’s, it’s long overdue.

Karissa: Yeah. I have a girls’ trip planned, too, in August as, well, in August. But I am heading over to Jackson, Wyoming, and Yellowstone, and the Grand Teton. So yeah. 

Arielle: 

Wow. 

Karissa: 

Maybe we need, like, a girls trip solution or something, ’cause I’m sure there has to be research on why that is so good for your health and such. 

Arielle: 

And I’m sure guys trips also have a similar kind of, um, kind of effect.

Oh, my dog is, is making her bed right now, so if you guys hear some scratches in the background, that’s what that is. 

Karissa:

 Oh, love it. Yeah. Shout out to Tinky, your dog. 

Arielle: 

Yeah. And home studios, the home studio life. Um, all right. Well, before we get into the solutions this week, if you’re not subscribed already, then we invite you to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.

That way you’ll get all of our solutions straight to your inbox, either every weekday or just once on Fridays. 

Karissa: 

And if you want these solutions and other solutions from the archive, you can follow us on our social media channels. We’re @optimistdaily on just about everything except X, where we’re @odetooptimism.

Arielle: 

If you already follow us, then amazing. Thank you for doing that. If you have any comments, questions, or feedback, then you can reach us on those social channels, or you can email us at podcast@optimistdaily.com. 

Karissa: 

As always, a big shout-out to The Optimist Daily Emissaries who financially support us. We couldn’t do this without you.

And today we have an Emissary shout-out, which is one of the perks you get for being an Emissary of The Optimist Daily. So tune in at the end for that. 

Arielle:

That said, there are a lot of non-financial ways that you can help further our mission. Um, some of those would be following us on socials, liking our posts, rating us, giving us a good five-star review.

Um, also leaving comments in your podcast app, wherever you are listening to us. That really helps the algorithm. 

Karissa: 

Yeah, exactly. So we’d really appreciate any help you can give in any way. 

Arielle: 

Well, with all of that said and done, I’m gonna jump into our solutions. The first solution is called “Creatine could help cancer immunotherapy reach more patients”.

So most of us know creatine from the gym, but UCLA researchers just found it might play a role in one of oncology’s biggest unsolved problems, why most immunotherapy patients don’t really respond to treatment. It turns out the issue might not be the cancer fighters themselves, but it’s the cells that train those cells.

Um, I’ve only known creatine as, like, a gym supplement. Um- Yeah, me too. So it’s pretty, it’s pretty wild to see it actually being used in this way. Um, let me try to explain the, the solution a little bit. So immunotherapy targets killer T cells directly, but those T cells need training first. There are these dendritic cells that do that job, and they’ve mostly been overlooked.

UCLA found creatine is essential fuel for dendritic cells. Without it, they can’t survive well, they can’t activate properly or prime T cells to fight tumors. In mouse melanoma models, daily creatine slowed tumor growth and boosted dendritic cell numbers and activation inside the tumor. So you can think of creatine as a biological battery of sorts that helps immune cells hold their energy even when competing with fast-growing tumors for nutrients.

The same pattern held up in human cells, and it could potentially improve dendritic cell cancer vaccines before they’re even given to a patient. They’re not at clinical trials yet. The team is working towards that, but creatine’s established safety profile means that the bar is lower than for a new drug.

All right. Now we’re just off the back of the World Cup, so I don’t know if you have been paying attention to any of the matches, Karissa. 

Karissa: 

Uh, a little bit. My boyfriend’s really into it, so I’ve been hearing about it- … a little bit passively, and I’ve seen a couple matches with him. But yeah, earlier this week, uh, Sunday was the final, and Spain has taken all the glory home, so super cool end to this month-long saga. 

Arielle: 

Yeah, it’s been a long one. This second solution is really timely ’cause it has to do with soccer, and it’s titled “What watching soccer does to your body according to science”. So if you have been really invested in the World Cup this year, then you already know that soccer is stressful to watch.

Karissa: 

Yep. 

Arielle: 

But it turns out it’s measurably stressful for your heart, your hormones, and if there’s a time zone involved, then your drive to work the next morning or commute or whatever, it’s gonna be affected. The science on this has been building for decades, and it’s pretty eye-opening. Matt Butler at King’s College London explains that your body responds to watching a match almost as if you’re actually playing.

He says, “While watching our players sweat on the pitch, we respond as if we, too, are on the pitch.” There’s something that happens called identity fusion, and that’s when diehard fans experience what happens to their team almost literally as if it’s happening to them personally. 

Karissa: 

Yeah. My boyfriend is a passionate sports fan, soccer included, and he definitely, uh, fuses his identity with the players ’cause he’ll be talking in terms of like, “We got it done,” and like, “We did this.”

So I can definitely see that in his actions. I thought in this article it was fascinating that cortisol rates start rising 14 hours before a kickoff even happens. Um, and they got this information from smartwatch data from fans of a German soccer club, so super cool research here. 

Arielle: 

Yeah. I am not personally too invested in football or soccer My partner as well is really into, um…

Well, he’s really into sports just in the statistics type of way. Uh, and also just into, I don’t know, there’s, like, a bunch of rivalries. He explains everything to me where there’s a lot of dramatic backstory and clubs acting in shady ways. So it’s kind of like his reality TV, I guess.

Karissa: 

Totally. 

Arielle: 

Um, there is a lot of drama. I can see it happening in front of me, where my friends who are super invested, they do get emotional. Their sleep is affected, because here in Europe we’ve been watching the World Cup, and we’d have to wake up at, like, 3:00 in the morning actually to watch, uh, the Netherlands play Morocco, for example.

And yeah, it, it will affect the next day, and maybe the days after that, ’cause you’re gonna get some sleep debt from that, which we actually also have a solution on that as well. Um- But yeah, there, there are a lot of really fun tidbits of information here. One of them that stood out to me was that post-win sexual activity was 27% higher after national team wins versus losses, and that comes from a European study in 2024.

So there were nearly 1,000 participants across five countries in that study, so I would say that’s a pretty good sample size. 

Karissa: 

Yeah, I think it’s also important to realize that there actually is, like, a biological response to all of this, and being able to manage this kind of stress is actually important.

Um, statistics from the 2006 World Cup showed that watching a stressful match more than doubled cardiac event risk that day, and heart attack ad- admissions in the 1998 World Cup actually rose 25% the day England lost to Argentina on penalties. So, um, being aware of this and just being a little more mindful, I think, is really important in the solutions context of this all.

Arielle: 

So let’s let this information simmer and marinate, and then we’ll be ready in four years for the next World Cup!

Arielle: 

Moving on to the next solution. It’s called “Why summer feels shorter than it is, and how to fix that”. So Karissa, we were just talking about this, how our minds are already at the end of the year.

Um, and we’re not even at August yet, but I’m already thinking, “What happened to June? What happened to July?” And researchers have actually identified two distinct neurological reasons summer disappears. The fix this time, like so many others we cover, is quite counterintuitive. So the two reasons summer just slips away are working against each other.

The first one is routine. The brain stops recording boring days. And then the other one is when it’s overpacked. So when your day is just, like, so, so busy your brain’s not focused on doing, it’s just going through the motions. Martin Weiner at George Mason says if something is mundane, then your brain doesn’t bother recording it strongly, and that’s intentional because it doesn’t need to have that information.

Lila Davachi at Columbia says busy weekends feel full in the moment, but then they blur together in hindsight. So you can just sprint through summer and still feel like it just disappeared. What you need here is a balance between the two because those extremes will backfire, and you actually have more control over this than you think.

So there’s some classic fixes, one being mindfulness and the other one being journaling, so I’m gonna kind of… Not that they’re not important, but I’m just gonna skip over those ones and focus on the other two, um, which are novelty and leaving room. Novelty is just doing something that is different from ordinary events in the day.

It could be, like, taking a different route to work or, I don’t know. Is there something new that you’ve done, Karissa? 

Karissa: 

Um, I’m thinking. Not too much recently, and maybe that’s why I’m in this summer, uh, you know, feeling like it’s slipping away. So- 

Arielle: 

Hmm … 

Karissa: 

I need to take this tip. 

Arielle: 

Yeah, definitely take it. I, um, the newest experience I’ve had recently was I went to, like, a Bulgarian folk concert.

Karissa: 

Hmm. 

Arielle: 

And, um, I’d never heard music like that before, so it’s… It wasn’t even… I go to concerts, but I just never seen something like this. So it could be something that you already do, but then you just kind of switch it up in the details. And then the other one is leaving room, which I definitely struggle with.

Uh, Liz Davachi, who I mentioned earlier, says too many experiences makes you feel like time is running out, and your brain gets exhausted and it just stops taking notes. Leaving a day or two or even a whole weekend of just rest will actually help you remember what happened in the summer months and appreciate it.

All right, moving on to the fourth solution. It’s titled “In Cuba’s fuel crisis, solar tricycles took the streets”. Cuba’s vintage American cars were one of the most recognizable images in the world, but they’re largely gone now. Cuba’s oil tanker arrivals dropped from about eight a month to one since January, when the US threatened tariffs on countries selling oil to Cuba.

The island only produces about 40% of its own fuel, so the rest has to be imported. Rolling blackouts got worse, bus routes got cut, and food and medicine shortages deepened across the country. But these Chinese electrical tricycles from brands like Zonshen and Jinpeng, costing about $2,000 to $4,000, stepped in to replace the buses.

They’re now running fixed routes. They’re hauling goods to the market. They’re collecting garbage in some Havana neighborhoods, and yeah, a lot of the owners have just installed these solar panels on the passenger awnings so that the vehicles can recharge without waiting for grid power that may or may not arrive, and that costs about 500-ish dollars, and they can pay that off fast.

Karissa: 

Yeah, such an innovative solution. I mean, improvising transportation under scarcity is something Cuba has been doing forever. 

Arielle: 

Moving on to the last solution I’m going to lead before I pass it on to Karissa. It’s titled “The five habits that science says build lasting happiness”. Most people think happiness is something that shows up when conditions are finally just right.

Researchers have a very different model, and five of the things the evidence consistently points to are almost none of what most people are spending their time on these days. So this article goes into how happiness isn’t primarily a mood, but it’s an output of how your life is structured. And if you’re thinking about happiness in that way, then that’s a little bit more useful and it’s more humbling.

So I’m not gonna go through all of the five habits, but two that I wanted to share were time over money. It seems like a lot of people these days are feeling time scarcity, and that is one of the most consistent predictors of low wellbeing. In 2027, there was a study that found people who spent money to buy back time reported higher life satisfaction than those who bought things like material goods.

Uh, and most people aren’t really thinking about making this trade-off. Some of my friends have really recommended just getting a, a cleaner at your house once in a while.

Karissa: Yeah. 

Arielle: 

And I think that that would actually really help my life satisfaction. Not that I’m not satisfied. I actually really enjoy cleaning, but like- 

Karissa: 

Yeah

Arielle: 

the deep clean, like all the corners in the kitchen and, like, the, the bathroom, the toilets and stuff like that, that takes a lot of time. It’s also not my favorite. Um, and it’s probably worth the money just to get a cleaner in for a couple hours once a month or something like that instead of buying expensive sunglasses.

Karissa: 

Yeah, exactly. 

Arielle: 

The other habit is psychological richness. A 2022 study found that many people, given the choice, said they’d want the most interesting life, so not necessarily the happiest or even the most meaningful one, but it’s novelty, complexity, and voluntary challenge that really makes a life feel full and rich.

That goes directly against people who like to optimize comfort. 

Karissa: 

That’s a great habit to point out as well. 

Arielle: 

So it’s just kind of a reframing of what happiness means and what living a happy life could mean. The last thing I’ll say about this solution is that even though we didn’t go through all five habits, they all have this in common, and that’s that none of them are about acquiring anything or achieving anything. So just let that simmer for a bit.

Karissa: 

Totally. 

The first solution that I have to share today is called “Scientists trial a painless brush test for oral cancer that returns results in 60 minutes”. I was surprised to find out that oral cancer cases have more than doubled since 1990, but the problem here isn’t just detection, it’s the current monitoring tool that is so unpleasant patients stop coming back for follow-ups.

Researchers just showed that a brush swab can match surgical biopsy accuracy and have results back in under an hour. So this new test is the QMIDS test, and it’s just a simple brush swab of a suspicious lesion analyzed for mRNA from four specific genes linked to oral cancer. The results are comparable to surgical biopsy, which is obviously a lot more invasive.

Rather than using a scalpel anywhere near your mouth, this just brushes the mouth. Lesions often need monitoring over months or years, and current biopsies are painful in an already sensitive area, so people just kind of start skipping follow-ups because it is so painful. So now that this new monitoring protocol is in place, it will make it a lot more likely that patients will actually get the proper monitoring.

Arielle: 

This is great. I love seeing that non-invasive diagnostics are a really active area these days in cancer research. Um, I mean, it’s already hard enough to even think that you might be developing cancer, so yeah, let’s just make these tests as easy and as manageable as possible. 

Karissa: 

Yeah, exactly. And in a time where oral cancer cases, and just cancer cases in general, are rising, um, this is more than important.

All right, well, moving on. The next solution is called “Short HIIT sessions can offset sleep debt’s metabolic toll”. Most of us treat sleep debt like a tiredness problem you solve by sleeping in on a Saturday, and I know I try to do that a lot, but the science says that’s not really how it works.

Researchers found something specific you can do about it, and it takes less than 15 minutes, and of course, it’s these HIIT workouts. Sleep debt isn’t just about feeling tired. It raises inflammation, stress hormones, and cardiovascular strain. It also duels insulin sensitivity. It raises blood sugar and long-term diabetes risk.

The science shows that sleeping an extra two hours in on the weekend won’t actually fix anything because your circadian rhythm won’t let you sleep those five extra hours you need anyways to cover a five-hour deficit, and your internal clock will wake you up at your usual time regardless. But it still doesn’t erase that impact on your body e- even if you do catch up on the sleep because you need this even amount of good sleep every day really.

Arielle: 

Are you dealing with a lot of sleep debt right now, Karissa? 

Karissa: 

Actually, I’m really not, but there’s definitely been weeks where I have, and just, like, weeks where I can’t sleep well or I’m going to bed really late. But at the moment, I think my sleep has been pretty solid. Arielle, are you okay on your sleep debt?

Arielle: 

Now that the World Cup is over, I am, um… And I can attest to the fact that HIIT workouts really do make you tired, that will definitely help you sleep earlier. 

Karissa: 

Yeah, exactly, and it’s not just the sleep that it may induce. It’s the way that it will offset the metabolic damage. Even just 10 to 15 minutes of short HIIT sessions can do this.

Multiple studies show that HIIT groups had less insulin resistance after sleep restriction than those who didn’t work out. So yeah, if you’re in that sleep debt, it could be worth incorporating this into your workout routine a little bit more. It’s not a workaround for sleep itself. Just, uh, sleeping less and doing a lot of HIIT every day is not gonna fix anything.

But it can be a very useful damage control when sleep debt is unavoidable. Well, moving on to something pretty different, “Fashion’s dirty secret: The EU just banned brands from incinerating unsold clothes”. Every year, hundreds of thousands of tons of clothing get incinerated or shredded, not because they’re damaged, but because burning them is cheaper than storing or donating them, which is just so unfortunate and something that, um, a lot of us probably know just from fast fashion industries being exposed over the years.

But now the EU is stepping up and making it illegal to burn or dispose of them. So here’s what this actually changes. As of this week, large fashion companies in the EU, which means 250 plus employees and 50 million euros plus in revenue, can no longer destroy unsold clothing, shoes, or accessories. And the exceptions are pretty narrow.

Unsafe items, counterfeits, things too damaged to use, or items charities have already declined don’t have to be included in this. But nonetheless, this is an important development because so many clothes were being wasted. I mean, companies were incinerating items because storage of these clothes costs money, and discounting it cuts their margins, and charity logistics take staff and time, so incineration was the cheapest option, and nothing was stopping them until now.

Now companies have to sell or donate these clothes, and so clearance sales, outlet channels, charity partnerships are all ways they can go about this. And they also have to publish annual reports on what they discard, kept for five years. 

Arielle: 

What I like about this is that it’s kind of attacking the deeper mechanism of it all.

So when disposal isn’t cheap anymore, then overproduction gets expensive, and that changes the economics of how much they make in the first place. So maybe they’ll just be a little bit more mindful of how much they’re likely to sell so that there’s less waste in the first place, if that makes sense.

Karissa: 

Yeah, exactly. That’s a huge point about this, too. The expected effect of this is that there will be more discounted and secondhand clothing available to shoppers out there in the world. So a really great development, and of course, would love to see more countries follow something similar. And also good news is that they’re going to be moving these regulations to medium-sized companies as well under same rules coming in 2030.

Well, moving on to the next solution, which kinda has to deal with the happiness solution we were talking about earlier, but in a different way. “Salsa dancing reduced depression and anxiety in young adults, Oxford study finds”. So Oxford researchers gave one group of young adults eight weeks of salsa classes.

The other group got nothing new. And by the end, the salsa group showed a measurably lower depression and social anxiety, and more daily happiness. This was a randomized controlled trial where 121 young adults aged 18 to 24 with mild to moderate depression and anxiety got to participate in, or not participate in salsa classes.

So half were in the classes, half were in the control group. And they had eight weeks of weekly classes and mental health questionnaires before, during, and after. And the results showed lower depression, less social anxiety, more happiness in daily life, and that is measurable and not just anecdotal. The lead researcher’s theory is that because salsa is physical, social, musical, structured, and playful all at once, it provides social contact that’s actually manageable for someone with anxiety.

Arielle: 

I guess the, the most anxious part about socializing is that there’s not really any structure, and then you just end up kind of standing around trying to make conversation. And that lack of guidelines could, could bring on some sort of anxiety. Um, I don’t think I really suffer from social anxiety in a way where I can claim it.

You know what I mean?

Karissa: 

Yeah.

Arielle: 

but I do resonate or recognize that feeling of like, what do I say? What do I do with my hands? Um, what… I don’t know who to talk to right now. Um, so I guess doing a group activity like salsa dancing, which is, you know, you gotta get kinda close with people as well, um, that would alleviate some of the mental work that goes into having to socialize.

Karissa: 

Yeah, exactly. Everything you were just saying, Arielle, is so true. You’re getting close. It’s kind of silly in a way, and it’s musical, and lots of fun stuff going on here. So it’s a little bit different from other kinds of group classes, and probably even, like, different group dancing classes as well. But of course, it’s not a standalone treatment for diagnosed depression, and more trials are needed.

The researchers describe it as a potential add-on, not a replacement for care. And in a time where young adult mental health is, you know, in crisis, and existing clinical tools aren’t meeting the demand, there’s urgency to find accessible non-clinical options as well. Okay, moving on to the last solution of the week.

“From 300 to 3,000, how Australia brought the”… Oh, it’s the numbat, right? 

Arielle: 

Yeah. 

Karissa: 

Okay. “How Australia brought the numbat back”. Western Australia’s small, striped, termite-eating marsupial was down to just 300 individuals in the late 1970s. But this week, the IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, officially moved it off the endangered list.

The 40-year story of how that happened is one of the cleaner conservation wins you’ll come across, and one of the more honest ones, too. By the late 1970s, population of the numbat had fallen to around 300 individuals, and primary threats were introduced predators, red foxes, feral cats, habitat loss, and changes to fire patterns.

Intervention methods over the years included preventing and protecting numbats from these predators. They put, uh, predator-proof fenced enclosures for numbats that were wild-caught and zoo-bred, and relocated them to new areas. And after all of these conservation efforts, the total population is now estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 individuals.

But of course, the hard truth here is that this success requires continuous effort, and this is true of all conservation stories. 

Arielle: 

Amazing news to hear that the numbat is back, or it’s making a comeback. Um, I’d actually never heard of a numbat before. 

Karissa: 

I didn’t either. My mispronunciation of numbat to begin with makes that obvious.

Arielle: 

I mean, it’s a really, really cute little, like, kind of sporty-looking squirrel, I guess you could say. 

Karissa: 

It is sporty-looking. I took a look at a picture of it, too. I like its stripes. 

Arielle: Yeah, it looks pretty sleek and, and swift. Yes. Um, but yeah, I just, I’m really happy that this animal is, uh… Well, first, that I know what it is now.

And secondly, that there’s more of them on this planet. So yeah, another big shout-out to kind of like a less glamorous side of, um, conservation, which is just consistency, and- 

Karissa: Mm-hmm … 

Arielle: 

sustained effort, as you were saying, Karissa. 

Karissa: 

Well, those were all the solutions we had to share on The Optimist Daily this week.

But before we go, we have a very special Emissary shout-out. 

Arielle: 

Yes, this Emissary shout-out is from Cindy. Cindy writes, “A special shout-out to Dr. Kelly Brady and Nyssa Hanger for their podcast that brings forth laughter, knowledge, and just plain fun. The podcast is called Being Different Together. They are very loving and caring people that bring understanding and support to the world.”

So big shout-out from our podcast to theirs. 

Karissa: 

Yeah. We’ll link the podcast in the show notes. And, uh, from what we see, Being Different Together is a podcast that explores the realms of relationship, entrepreneurship, and personal development through the lens of real dialogue, which I’m not sure what it is, but I’ll have to listen and find out.

It’s a set of principles, practices, and methods for healthy conflict as a means for growth. So I think this is a pretty fascinating concept. And they say that this podcast is for all the people who want to make the world a better place and feel a little less alone doing it. And I think we’re all people who wanna make the world a better place and connect with fellow Optimists who also wanna do the same thing, so this is a great podcast to go check out.

Recommended from our own Optimist and Emissary, Cindy. 

Arielle: 

Thank you, Cindy, for the recommendation, and thank you so much for supporting our work here at The Optimist Daily. 

Karissa:

 Yeah. And we’ll leave you off with a positive quote as always, and this week we chose, “One can follow the sun, of course, but I have always thought that it is best to know some winter too, so that the summer, when it arrives, is the more gratefully received.”

And that is from author Beatriz Williams. 

Arielle: 

We wish you all a very happy, restful, and restorative weekend. 

Karissa: 

Absolutely. And we’ll be back next week with more solutions. 

Arielle: 

Bye! 

Karissa: 

Bye!