“On Repeat” – Monday

READING SUMMARY

This podcast discusses two stories, both involving things “on repeat.” The first story is about a comedy skit put on by Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Shaal. Kurt sang an obnoxious and loud song about a horse as Kristen danced. The audience laughed, but then Kurt and Kristen kept repeating the song and dance. After about four times, the audience did not think it was funny anymore, but then after nine to eleven times, people began to laugh again. The audiences’ brains expected this skit to be funny, so they laughed, but then had the expectation that it would get better or change. This expectation was then broken, as it did not get better or more funny. The second story is about Christine Campbell and her mother, Mary Sue. Mary Sue called her daughter one day and told her to call back, that something was wrong. However, when Christine called back, her mother did not know the date and did not recognize the truck that had been in their driveway for ten years. Christine called paramedics thinking it was a stroke, but in reality, Mary Sue had transient global amnesia, meaning memory loss that came and went every so often, leaving her for up to 24 hours without memories of what day it was, etc. The weird thing was, though, that every time Mary Sue had this memory loss, she would have the same conversation, repeating every minute and a half to two minutes, starting off with “what day is it?” and continuing with the same laugh and other questions, as if she was trapped in a loop inside her mind.

OUTSIDE EXAMPLE

At the end of the short summary paragraph on the website that has the podcast, it says that the doctor wonders “just how much control we have over our own actions.” This reminds me of when we know a pattern so well, such as walking to class or driving to work, that we don’t even think about it and just arrive at whatever location we usually go to. We know how to get there subconsciously, just doing the actions without thinking. One time last year, I was driving home from work and realized that I remembered nothing from the drive home until I got to a stop sign near my house. I must have just zoned out, but obviously did not get in a crash or run any red lights. I just knew how to drive home without even thinking, and that was a bit scary. The same thing has happened walking to class in high school, when I was so used to the same schedule and hallways that sometimes I would just end up in the next class without even remembering walking from the last one. My body knew the actions and did them without my mind really having control or remembering them, simply because I have repeated those actions so many times.

READING CONNECTION

This podcast’s purpose was to discuss how much control we actually have over our actions, like how the audience laughed at the skit due to expectations rather than actual humor, and how Mary Sue kept saying the same things over and over again without realizing the conversation was simply repeating. This is similar to me driving to and from these common places like work or school without even thinking, since I’ve repeated those actions so many times. I often wouldn’t remember even driving home or walking to class if nothing different occurred, like a high amount of traffic, that actually caused me to remember the trip, similar to Mary Sue’s story of not remembering the conversation, so she kept repeating the same things. Of course, this simple zoning-out on the way to school or work or class and forgetting what happened is very minor compared to Mary Sue’s transient global amnesia. Overall, the idea is that repeating things you’ve done for years, like laughing at a comedy skit even if it isn’t funny and driving to work, causes you to forget what you are actually doing, and how much control you have over your actions.