Podcast Summary

Podcast: Something You Should Know

Host: Mike Carruthers
Episode: Secret Languages We All Speak & Amazing Changes in Nature You Never Knew
Date: November 13, 2025

Overview

This engaging episode dives into two fascinating topics:

1. Secret Languages: Ben Schott, author of Schott’s Significa: A Miscellany of Secret Languages, explores the hidden codes, slangs, and private signals groups and professions use to bond, communicate efficiently, and define their own worlds.
2. Nature’s Seasonal Clues: Tristan Gooley, expert navigator and author of The Hidden: A Calendar of Nature’s Clues, reveals surprising natural phenomena that most people miss — from the hidden timing of blooms to how autumn leaves, insects, and sunsets offer clues about the world’s rhythms.

Segment 1: Secret Languages We All Speak

Guest: Ben Schott
[03:44 – 29:28]

What Are Secret Languages?

• Definition: Shared codes, slangs, or terms unique to certain professions, families, or in-groups.
• Everywhere & Overlooked:
  • “We are surrounded by secret languages, and we interact with them all the time without knowing them.” — Ben Schott [06:45]
  • Found in bars, restaurants, families, and nearly every workplace.

Purpose & Meaning

• Efficiency & Bonding:
  • “Most of them, I think, are designed in order for people to sort of communicate quickly. So it’s really about speed and efficiency and an esprit de corps.” — Ben Schott [09:35]
  • Example: Medical professionals use jargon both for speed and to soften conversation in front of patients (e.g., “query mitotic lesion” instead of “cancer”).
• Cultural Snapshot:
  • Secret languages disappear if undocumented — they capture a moment in time, identity, and profession.

Memorable Stories & Examples

• Diamond District of NYC:
  • Uses terms like “G” (customer), “Kitty with the G” (keep the customer engaged), and “Sherry the G” (show the customer out).
• Reality TV:
  • “Chicken count” — a rundown of where all characters are before the next segment.
  • Favorite term: “Wine slap” — the trope of throwing wine during confrontations. [15:12]
• Industry Slang Coinage:
  • Podcasting: “Pre-roll,” “mid-roll,” and “post-roll” for ads—new words for new practices. [20:42]
  • Tech and pop culture constantly drive creation of new terms.
• Bar World:
  • “Boomerang” — a drink passed (illegally) between bartenders via a customer.
  • “Bartender’s handshake” — ordering specific drinks (like Fernet Branca) as an insider’s signal.

How Terms Spread and Stick

• Adoption:
  • “Sometimes it’s just, like, pleasing slang. …Someone says it once and people just go, ‘Oh, that’s cool,’ and it just gets used and used.” — Ben Schott [19:18]
• From Subculture to Mainstream:
  • Some terms (e.g., “86” in restaurants) stay even as they become more widely known.
  • TV shows like The Bear showcase back-of-house slang and bring it to a wider audience.

The Role of Private Language in Families

• Idioms & In-jokes:
  • Families develop unique words (“idiolects”)—e.g., special names for the TV remote.
  • “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” — [Wittgenstein, quoted by Ben Schott, 12:47]
• Quote:
  • “It’s so instinctive to them. They don’t think as an outsider that it’s special or interesting. And I’m here to tell them that it is and to try and extract it from them.” — Ben Schott [26:16]

Nonverbal "Languages"

• Hand Signals:
  • Open-outcry oil traders, African American church ushers, and others have developed intricate signaling systems for silent, seamless communication. [28:00]

Segment 2: Amazing Changes in Nature You Never Knew

Guest: Tristan Gooley
[33:23 – 52:42]

Seasonality and Hidden Clues

• Nature’s Calendar:
  • “Everything outdoors is a clue. It’s a sign. ...It can reveal something else once we pause and just question something and say, what does it mean?” — Tristan Gooley [33:53]
  • Many signs require close, repeated observation — like leaves turning color weeks before they fall.

Surprising Natural Patterns

• Early Wildflowers:
  • Places where the first flowers appear each year are always the same — they’re perennials with stored energy.
  • “The first flowers you see each year, you will see in the same place the following year.” — Tristan Gooley [35:45]
• Stinging Nettles:
  • Act as both compass (lean toward the sun) and map (grow where soil is rich, often near human activity).
• Equinoxes/Solstices:
  • In late March, daylight lengthens at its fastest rate—more change in a week than in months of summer or winter.
  • “The length of day changes more in one week in late March than it does in the whole months of June or December.” — [37:15]
  • Many forget how dramatic these changes are.

Changing Clocks of Nature

• Temperature and Species:
  • Plants and animals “count” cumulative warmth (“degree days”) rather than instantaneous temperature.
  • Fast-reproducing species (insects, wildflowers) respond quickly to temperature spikes; slow reproducers (trees, mammals) follow day length.

Practical Weather/Nature Clues

• Swarming Insects:
  • Sudden heat spikes prompt insect swarms as a reproductive strategy — “a smash and grab.”
  • “...Small animals have evolved a kind of smash and grab strategy. ...Let's go for it.” — Tristan Gooley [44:17]
• Clear Water Phase in June:
  • Ponds/lakes become suddenly clear as tiny animals outcompete algae — a sign of seasonal cycles. [45:08]
• Morning Mist:
  • Maps the lowest-lying, coldest areas; not random, but shaped by air density and landscape. [46:45]
• Twinkling Stars:
  • Moisture in the upper atmosphere increases twinkling; a sign of approaching weather changes.
  • “...More twinkling in the stars, ah, there could be some bad weather on the way.” — Tristan Gooley [48:33]
• Sunset Colors:
  • The deep reds of summer sunsets are caused by increased particles in the air, filtering out blue light.
  • “August is an absolute classic there.” — Tristan Gooley [49:36]
• Leaf Litter "Compasses":
  • Fallen leaves pile on the wind-shadow side of trees; wind sweeps the opposite side clean.
• Cloud Shapes:
  • Taller than wide = unstable atmosphere → more likely rain, storms, or hail. [51:45]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “If you really understand how people communicate, you also understand how they think.” — Ben Schott [11:49]
• “Every family has a sort of idiolect or a sociolect... private words and terms that people use.” — Ben Schott [12:47]
• “Nothing is random in nature.” — Tristan Gooley [50:51]
• “In space, stars don’t twinkle.” — Tristan Gooley [48:39]
• “I would never seek this information out, but when I hear it from you... it's really interesting and it's stuff I’ll remember.” — Mike Carruthers [52:08]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:44] — Introduction to the “itch-scratch cycle”; setup for secret languages
• [06:29] — Ben Schott on how secret languages are everywhere
• [09:35] — Purposes of group slangs: speed, esprit de corps
• [14:23] — “Chicken count” in reality TV editing
• [19:18] — Evolution and spread of slang in professions
• [20:42] — Podcast-specific language (pre-/mid-/post-roll)
• [22:37] — “Boomerang” and “bartender’s handshake”
• [28:00] — Secret hand signals in trading and churches
• [33:23] — Tristan Gooley on reading nature’s seasonal clues
• [37:15] — The true meaning of equinox and solstice
• [44:17] — Insect swarms and “smash and grab” reproduction
• [45:08] — “Clear water phase” in lakes/ponds
• [48:33] — Using twinkling stars to forecast weather
• [49:36] — Seasonal changes in sunset colors
• [51:45] — Clouds as weather predictors

Tone & Language

The conversations are lively, peppered with real-world examples, humor, and curiosity. Both guests are clearly passionate about their topics, eager to share “invisible” worlds—language or nature—with listeners who might otherwise never notice them.

Final Insights

Understanding secret languages gives us a new appreciation for how people bond, work together, and define their communities. Observing subtle cues in nature reminds us that the world is endlessly dynamic — and that by paying attention, we can read stories written right in front of us.

Additional Quick Facts

• Banana Myth Debunked: Despite their sugar content, bananas are highly nutritious and beneficial, especially for their potassium content. [52:50]
• Everyday Intel: The episode sprinkles in practical tips (e.g., how to avoid the itch-scratch cycle, why bananas are good for you) amid deeper explorations.

For anyone intrigued by hidden worlds, this episode is a compelling listen—and provides a toolkit to spot the invisible languages around and within you, whether spoken by people, or told by the turning of the earth itself.