Why is learning stuff harder as you get older...

CrowdScience listener Devin in Canada has just had a baby. Worried that all the good email addresses might be taken by the time his child needs one, he has already set up an account. But it got him wondering: how many email addresses belong to people who have died? From websites ...  Show more

CrowdScience listener Lisa, who is from South Africa but now lives in the UK, has been a vegetarian for many years. Sometimes though, she still finds herself craving meats – like spaghetti bolognese or a burger. To satisfy these cravings, she eats ‘alt-meats’, products meant to l ...  Show more

For most people, learning any skill is a long, at-times challenging journey. Humans struggle to acquire expertise and, after attaining it, they must regularly use this knowledge or risk losing it. But what if you woke up one day, after an injury, to find you suddenly understoo ...

Learning to play a musical instrument is hard. So is trying to run a marathon, writing a term paper, and caring for a sick child. These things involve frustration, pain, and disappointment — yet we do them anyway. This week, in part two of our look at the allure of suffering, ...

It can be incredibly gratifying to harness mastery of a skill. But why is learning new things so hard? In this episode, we'll explore that question and give you three steps to start learning something new. Now all you need to do is decide what it is you want to learn!See pcm.adsw ...  Show more

Are you working really hard to learn something? Remember this counterintuitive fact, and you might improve your learning curve. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices