Geological surveys after the 1964 earthquake found that Alaska's coastline was altered by as much as 50 feet in some areas, with some parts rising 40 feet and others sinking up to 8 feet.
Where this was said
At 9:40 · chapter starts 8:20
Once Chuck starts listing how far the earthquake's effects reached, the episode enters genuinely startling territory. Water level changes were registered in 47 of the 50 US states — every state except Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware [1] — Chuck "Water level changes from the 1964 Alaska earthquake were registered across every US state except Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware. S…" 08:17 . These seiche waves, oscillating disturbances in enclosed or semi-enclosed bodies of water, were reported as far away as Australia and South Africa. In the Gulf of Mexico, the sloshing was so severe that fishing boats sank off Louisiana — thousands of miles from Alaska. The Space Needle in Seattle, roughly 1,000 miles from the epicentre, visibly swayed. Chuck and Josh spell out the word 'seiche' for listeners in alternating letters, a brief comic moment that underscores how unfamiliar the phenomenon is to most people — despite its extraordinary global reach in this instance.
The 1964 earthquake changed Alaska's coastline by up to 50 feet in some areas — some parts rose nearly 40 feet, others sank 8 feet. Shipping lanes had to be redrawn, entire forests dropped into the ocean still standing, and the land itself became unrecognizable.
Entire stretches of Alaskan coastal forest didn't fall over — they dropped vertically, still standing upright, straight into the ocean and were swallowed by the water. It's one of the earthquake's most haunting images, and it later gave scientists proof that this had happened many times before.
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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