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.