TALKING BACKWARDS (Backwards Banter Brain Testing) - Smarter Every Day 168

Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. A while back on the Smarter Every Day subreddit, someone made a post that said something like "no one ever believes that I can talk backwards." This caught my eye, and I watched the video, and it was fascinating. It's a skill this guy has clearly worked very, very hard on.

If you remember in the backwards bicycle video, when I was first learning, if I had a phone in my pocket that rang when I was trying to do it, it would break that skill instantly, and I would no longer be able to steer. It's really curious how the brain works. I asked this guy if he would come to Alabama and basically become a human test subject and let me try to test the limits of this skill. I'm really excited because he actually accepted my invite, and today on Smarter Every Day, we're gonna get to test someone's brain trying to talk backwards. Let's do it.

This is Kurt Quinn, and... uhh... is it a talent or a skill? I think it's a skill. A skill? --that you can acquire. I think it's something that I've... yeah. Okay, so Kurt can do this thing. He can talk backwards, and I have questions. So, first I want to demonstrate the skill, okay? --and then I'm gonna put you in stranger and stranger situations until I see if I can break it. So, my brain? Yeah, how many words can you start with? Uh, let's start with one word and gradually work up, okay? Is that okay? Really? Yeah, that's how it works; yeah, because it really, after a while, it gets easier and easier as I do it. Okay, let's start with this; okay, banjo.

(Talking backwards) (Talking backwards) okay (Talking backwards) say uh I'm in Alabama with a banjo woman can you get your banjo out? Sure, okay, go ahead, move my underwear off it, okay I'm in Alabama with a banjo on my mind. (Talking backwards) This is bizarre, dude. I'm in Alabama with a banjo on my knee. I'm impressed.

Okay, okay, I know this is kind of strange, but there is a method to my madness. I'm going to start simple by just demonstrating the skill and then slowly ramp up the weirdness with animals. Eventually, I want to see if I can completely task saturate him by doing different kinds of distractions and just see what his brain does as a reaction.

You ever held a chicken? No, I haven't. (Talking backwards) I'm holding a chicken. This cat's name is Ganymede. (Talking backwards) This cat's name is Ganymede. Dirty fish bowl. Dirty Fish Bowl. He has fifty animals, all of them I have to hold. 50 of the animals, bunny rabbit, is that how it works? Yeah, okay. Uh, my dog's name is Buckshot, my dog name is Buckshot.

When I started to think about the physics of speech, I started to gain a much deeper appreciation for the algorithm that his brain has created. Think about it this way: In the English alphabet, there are 26 letters, but in the International Phonetic Alphabet, there are one hundred and seven letters. If you think about that, it's not that he's actually reading the letters of a word backwards; he has to phonetically recreate the sounds those letters are making backwards.

Okay, I think this might be awkward, but I think it's worth it. Think about your mouth as a control volume. You have a tongue inside, and you have teeth. In the interaction between your tongue and your teeth, restrict and allow airflow in certain directions. On the outside, you have lips that can hold back pressure, and then they can release that pressure all at once.

To appreciate what his brain is doing, you have to understand that there's some physical sounds you can't make backwards. For example, plosives. Plosives are where you pressurize the inside of your mouth, and you briefly let it go. For example, pooh-bah, cup, yah, tah, dah. Those are plosives. The fact that you can create those backwards is very strange because if you look at a spectrogram of those sounds, you have this very sharp spike where the sound starts and then this release of air: PAH, bah, KAH, GAH, TAH. In order for us to hear what he's saying backwards, he has to fake a plosive because you can't instantly, like, in a matter of milliseconds, repressurize air and make it sound good.

So, he has tricks that he's using to make it sound like a duh. Ha ha! It's really interesting. For example, the CH sound, backwards, is Tsch. Can you do it while you play your banjo? I've never tried.

Say "Rainbow." What? Is that super hard! Okay, yeah, I'm gonna tell you "rolling." Well, oh man. Okay, Leprechaun. When this went up. Oh man... So, was it harder? Yeah! Okay, what's... What would your brain do in there now? I felt good while I was doing this song that I've played a million times, and then you threw the word in, and then my brain just forgot about this.

That's interest. Is this embarrassing to you? I mean, a little. What is it? Why does it bother you that you didn't get it right? This isn't like a challenge. Yeah, it is! Wha... is it? Yeah, right! What are we doing if not trying to do it right? Okay. Leprechaun. It's your face! It is! I could see the gears go eeEERRRRRR.

Okay, the grand finale, my friends. Jared and Daniel wanted to help me come up with a situation that would completely task saturate his mind, so this video that you're about to see starts immediately after the safety brief, which is when he understood that there were going to be two rifles on each side of him firing at an array of bottles in the field while a drone is hovering overhead recording the whole event. It was really fun, but one thing I find super interesting is that the sound of the AK as it fires is just like a plosive; it's the rapid release of pressurized gas.

So when we play it backwards, think about that gas repressurizing, and that's what a plosive sound sounds like when played in reverse. So Jared and Daniel are going to be going after these bottles, I'm going to be yelling words at you. Okay? Alright. So, first word is "ready." Alright, put the weapons down. Welcome to Alabama.

Okay, that was a super fun video, and I just wanted to show you that we have ducks as well. We really like animals. Anyway, today's sponsor is... who I want to say thank you to, and that is Audible. We have a book that we've been reading together, don't we? What is it? Harry Potter! I know you're in chapter... aren't you in chapter 9? Maybe... maybe... Anyway, you go, you can do on their... I... we're gonna talk about it a little bit later. You're in chapter 11? Awesome, so here's the deal: I use Audible to stay relevant in my kids' lives. He likes to read; I want to encourage that he enjoys Harry Potter.

So what I'm doing is, even though I don't have a lot of time on my way to work, I am listening to the Harry Potter books so that when I come home at night, I have something I can relate to with my son. Kenneth, can you do the pirate thing? He is in the second book now, and I am listening to the same books that he does just because I want to be able to have intelligent conversations with my eight-year-old.

You can get a free trial, and that would really be a big help for Smarter Every Day. In all seriousness, please consider supporting Smarter Every Day by going to audible.com/smarter and getting a free trial. As you can see from my son's face, he really enjoys the fact that I'm staying relevant with him.

Anyway, em... also, Kurt wanted to tell you the URL backwards so that you can remember it. Smarter every day, it's so silly, but it feels so good, doesn't it? Yeah, it's so satisfying. If you don't see some of Kurt Quinn's skills, this is Smarter Every Day. He's got his own YouTube channel; it's Kurt Kurt Quinn. Yeah, he's got some really interesting skills; this one is pretty cool, but I think my favorite is the fact that you are a world record banjo player.

Yeah, I hold the world record for the world's fastest banjo player. I love that video! Go check that out! Please consider subscribing. He would never say that; he actually doesn't even say that on your channel. Do you sometimes? I say "York's bus." Okay, anyway, check it out, and you can be "arks bus" if we're never taken? What? Anyway, I really appreciate your time, and you're gonna stick around for a podcast with us? Yeah? Okay, cool.

If you want to hear us talk to Kurt Quinn on our podcast "No Dumb Questions," I'll leave a link to that as well, so I think that's it. Anything else? No, thanks, man. Alright, it's awesome! Thank you very much. Boom! Have a good one.

Yob, what does that mean? Bye!

Alright, backwards bike, give it a shot. So, when your brain clicks into backwards talking mode, is it like a click that happens? Or... No, well, maybe! Yeah, 'cause when I... could I... what... after I do it for a while, I warm up? Yeah, it's easier. No, it was like when you... same thing. Give it a shot.