Do you really know?

Have you ever fallen head over heels for someone as soon as you met them? It certainly doesn’t happen to us on a regular basis, but it’s pretty common for a person to say they’ve experienced love at first sight at some point in their lives.  Psychcentral.com references a a survey of over 5,000 adults, which found that four in ten of them had had a love-at-first-sight experience, while psychologist...

"May all your delulu come trululu, because being delulu is the solulu." The clip you just listened to comes from American influencer Bianca Bernardo on Tiktok, and it’s had over 2/3 million views at the time of recording. If you’re wondering what the heck those crazy words mean, it’s best summed up as saying: “may all your fantasies turn into reality”.  Indeed, the delulu hashtag has racked up ove...

Every year, The Economist Intelligence Unit publishes a Global Liveability Ranking, which assesses urban areas around the world according to quality of life, based on a number of factors. The latest ranking was made public in June 2023, and a trend was quickly identified.  A number of highly-ranked cities dropped drastically, and that includes British cities like London, Edinburgh and Manchester....

You might assume that belief in the paranormal is limited to the fringes of society. After all, according to science, ghosts don’t exist; or at least, their existence has never been proven.   But despite this lack of evidence, a significant proportion of people still claim to believe in ghosts. Within the last decade, Yougov polls have suggested that’s true for a third of Brits and 40% of American...

More and more of us are consuming digital content at increased speed. Whether it’s on social media, watching a Netflix series or listening to a podcast like Do You Really Know, speed watching and speed listening are becoming increasingly common. It’s a habit you tend to see more among younger people, who are very active on social media and sometimes speed things up so that they can consume even mo...

According to a 2019 report from eharmony, a third of relationships had started online between 2015 and 2019, compared to just 19% in the preceding decade. The so-called “Future of Dating” also suggested that by the year, more than half of relationships will have begun online. Whether you're seeking a serious relationship or just a casual fling, there's something out there for everyone. As with any...

Choosing the right toothpaste can be a bit of a challenge, either because there's a plethora of options or because you might have specific requirements. It's not always clear what these products contain, whether it's advisable to steer clear of certain toothpaste, or if the organic versions are just as effective. The main goal is to tackle dental plaque before it turns into tartar, preventing issu...

It’s pretty common knowledge that office workers across the world have a sedentary lifestyle, which is linked with a whole host of potential health problems. But did you know that most of us also unconsciously hold our breath when staring into an electronic screen? The phenomenon was discovered by former Microsoft executive Linda Stone back in 2008, who named it email apnea. While she did a lot of...

Cleaning can feel satisfying, but did you know many household products might actually harm your health? A 2021 Which? study revealed that nearly half of common UK cleaning products contain potentially dangerous chemicals. Even those labeled “eco-friendly” or “for sensitive skin” aren’t always safe. Preservatives like Methylisothiazolinone and Benzisothiazolinone are known to cause allergic reactio...

The great un-retirement is a term that has been coined to explain the fact that people are working longer or even coming out of retirement completely to return to work. Find out why this is happening in this episode. In a poll by Rest Less, a digital community that supports the over-50s, 32% of members said they would consider returning to work or that they were already working again. And statisti...

All romantic relationships come with challenges, and one of the biggest hurdles tends to be fidelity. Over the years, there have been a number of studies on the prevalence of cheating, but it’s tricky to know how reliable data from those studies is. After all, it relies on people owning up to unfaithful behaviour. Generally speaking though, surveys from the likes of YouGov have suggested that arou...

It was widely expected that the condom industry would thrive throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, but to many people’s surprise, it actually struggled. Malaysian world number one Karex actually lost 50% of its stock value. And talking of Malaysia, the country has seen a remarkable development in the field of gynecology, with Dr John Tang Ing Chinh creating creating the first ever unisex condom, known...

Despite the rising popularity of vegan or vegetarian lifestyles, many people still love the taste and texture of meat, or simply can’t kick the habit, having eaten meat throughout their lifetimes. That explains why the vegan meat substitute market is thriving. These 100% plant-based products are a good source of protein and closely resemble meat in a number of ways. But no doubt many of you who ea...

“Birds of a feather flock together”, the old saying goes. But does that apply when it comes to romantic relationships? After all, we also say that opposites tend to attract, an idea which has been sold to us through Disney fairytales, romcoms and countless love songs over the years. But in 2023, a group of British and American scientists decided to put this notion to the test, by delving into a va...

Over on TikTok, the #idontchaseiattract hashtag is nearing in on 20,000 publications at the time of recording. It really took off in late 2023, especially after Kendall Jenner said the following in an interview with Enews.  Behind the simple statement are young women advocating that with enough belief, you can manifest whatever you want in life. You might have also heard of "Lucky girl syndrome" a...

From claims that AIDS was engineered to shrink the global population, to the insistence that the Earth must be flat because otherwise the oceans would spill over, to the idea that Michael Jackson is secretly alive, conspiracy theories are everywhere. A study by Arcom, the French media regulator, found that 60% of people in France believe at least one of them. We might be tempted to ignore these st...

When it comes to cold weather we're not all in the same boat. Some of us can cope with low temperatures, while others are super sensitive, especially on their hands and feet. For some people extremities can become numb, painful, change colour or even develop into frostbite.  Usually, when it's cold, vasoconstriction helps to protect us against low temperatures, by prioritising blood flow to vital...

While it remains a complex phenomenon, the female orgasm is becoming a focus of more and more medical studies. Back in 2016, French sociomedical researcher Odile Fillod created the first ever 3D model of a clitoris, changing the way we think about female pleasure. And since then, we've learned a fair amount more about the different possible types of orgasm that a woman can have. We often talk abou...

Let's face it, we’re so accustomed to seeing those little pop-up windows when landing on a website that we barely pay any attention to them anymore. Cookies have become ubiquitous, and whether it’s out of convenience or sheer habit, we tend to accept them without much thought. But those innocuous-seeming cookies actually harbour a wealth of information about us. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s...

For a number of years now, the innovative field of femtech has been revolutionising how we approach healthcare for women. Technology already touches just about every aspect of our lives, and healthcare is no exception. Now femtech focuses specifically on addressing various aspects of women's health, from contraception to diseases that predominantly affect women. It may have Initially been overlook...

When you reach a certain age, it often feels as though everything is in decline: your body, your memory, your energy.  But what if getting older didn’t have to be a purely downward slope? Research has shown that that idea may in fact be a misconception. That’s right: your intellectual peak may end up coming much later than you expect. Surly our most significant intellectual performances happen whe...

We’ve talked about love and relationships in a number of previous episodes of Do You Really Know. You may remember we’ve discussed the secrets to a long-lasting relationship, and the triangular theory of love for example. But despite lovey dovey representations of romance in films, a lot of people say that love doesn’t last forever. Some people say it’s limited to three years max for example. So w...

The Tesla “We, Robot” event in October 2024 saw Elon Musk unveil the company’s Robotaxi, a fully autonomous car which he said passengers would soon be able to fall asleep in, and wake up at their destination. And all for a price tag of under $30,000! Critics quickly pointed out that Musk has often made ambitious claims about his company’s new technology in the past, which didn’t quite end up turni...

We often assume that fresh is best, but the reality is more complicated. It all depends on how vegetables are stored, how long they’ve been in transit, and even how they’re cooked. While fresh vegetables are packed with nutrients right after harvest, they can lose a significant amount of vitamins and minerals by the time they reach your plate. According to a 2023 study on UK consumer habits, nearl...

If you were a WWE fan in the 2000s, a mere mention of the name Dave Bautista is likely to get you feeling all nostalgic. During his wrestling career, Bautista became well known for his muscular build. And even after quitting the WWE, he stayed in the spotlight, going into acting and being recognised as the “best wrestler-turned-actor” out there, according to the likes of ScreenRant, AVclub.com and...