Why do we enjoy being scared? This episode starts with a Danish survey in which 93% of parents say their child enjoys at least one scary activity, then asks what fear is for, from babies at a glass cliff to Aristotle’s theater. It follows what happens in the body and brain of someone who chooses a scare: a heart rate that climbs from 91 to 153 on a coaster, enjoyment that peaks at a middle level of fear, a brain reward response when an expected danger does not arrive, and a mood that is better for about half of haunted-house visitors, with what choice and company add.

What is the scariest thing you chose to do, and how did you feel afterward?

What does turning the clocks back do to your body? This episode starts with the extra hour and a study of 11,780 people wearing wrist monitors, which shows how much of it the body keeps. It explains the master clock in the brain and how light resets it every day, then follows what the earlier dark does: hospital records in Denmark, US posts about the change, robberies and crashes after sunset, and a computer simulation in which 30 minutes of bright evening light shortened the body clock’s adjustment from about 8 days to about 3.

When the clocks go back, what do you feel first: sleepier evenings or earlier mornings?

turning the clocks back, fall back, daylight saving time ends, body clock, circadian rhythm, why am I tired after the time change, melatonin, daylight saving time and mood, Sleep Architecture, Write To Rewire, sleep science shorts

What did Émile Coué really teach beyond “Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better”? Follow a French pharmacist from his counter to a garden in Nancy.

An eyewitness described one of his sittings: a talk, a hands-clasped demonstration, and a hand on each patient’s head. Then the episode asks whether he was onto something: a Greek headache charm from Plato, a trial of confident words, a migraine study where the label on the pill mattered, and reviews of hypnosis and self-hypnosis.