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 it. 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 it
after a while it gets easier and easier
as I 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 saturating 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 50 the animals
bunny rabbit
is that how it works? yea
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 of 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 or 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 can you do it while you play
your banjo I've never tried.
Say Rainbow. What?
Is that are? 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 like 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 is
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
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anyway em.. also Kurt wanted to tell you the
URL backwards so that you can remember it
Smarter everyday, 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 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 who's even go
check that out please consider
subscribing he would never say that he
actually don'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 to 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 all right
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 cuz 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.