Every single one of the ten largest earthquakes ever recorded has been a megathrust earthquake, where one tectonic plate locks with and then slips beneath another.
Where this was said
At 3:55 · chapter starts 2:10
With the personal anecdotes out of the way, Chuck and Josh get down to the facts. The Good Friday Earthquake struck Alaska on March 27, 1964, registering 9.2 on the Richter scale — second only to Chile's 9.5 in 1960. Despite the colossal force, total deaths numbered 131, which Chuck contextualises as relatively low given that only about 15 people were killed by the earthquake itself; most fatalities came from the tsunamis that followed. Josh makes an argument that runs through the whole episode: this earthquake didn't just destroy — it transformed science [1] — Chuck "The 1964 Alaska Good Friday Earthquake registered 9.2 on the Richter scale — the second most powerful ever recorded, behind only Chile's 9.…" 02:09 . It happened at precisely the moment when the scientific community had the tools and motivation to study it, and what they learned rewrote everything we thought we knew about seismology, tsunamis, and plate tectonics.
All 10 of the 10 largest earthquakes ever recorded are megathrust earthquakes — and now we know why. Two tectonic plates collide, lock together under immense pressure, and eventually one gives way in a catastrophic slip, lurching an entire region of the Earth's surface dozens of feet in seconds.
The widely cited ego-depletion model — the idea that willpower is a finite resource that gets depleted — failed to replicate in follow-up studies.
Humans are estimated to have 5,000–7,000 thoughts per day, yet can recall essentially none of them afterward, highlighting why in-the-moment emotional tracking matters.
A large Harvard study found that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind — people report greater happiness when their attention is tethered to the present, even if the task is unpleasant.
A key study finding that we have a 'credit card's worth of plastic' in our bodies was likely skewed because researchers used nitrile gloves that shed plastic particles onto the microplastic detector.
Emotionally sensitive people have a hyperactive amygdala, an underactive prefrontal cortex, and a frayed connection between the two — making emotional regulation structurally harder.
Rejection sensitivity can be observed as early as age 2 or 3, suggesting it has strong developmental and likely genetic roots.
A Yale study found that non-judgmental observation of emotions — without rushing to resolve them — reduces activation in the brain, making it a powerful regulation tool.
Dan Gilbert's research found that the psychological immune system — the brain's ability to justify and find satisfaction in choices — activates most powerfully when a decision is perceived as irreversible.
Barry Schwartz's research found that maximizers — people who try to optimize every decision — tend to achieve objectively better outcomes but report lower happiness than satisficers who choose 'good enough.'
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