Chai FM: Recent Episodes
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A FINAL FIRE RHYME
A playful closing for Howard – faith, effort, freedom and one very unfortunate bird.
SAVE – BUT LIVE
Save what you can and invest what you may,but don’t let tomorrow eat all of today.Build freedom with patience, with purpose and cheer;take one steady step, then another each year.
THINK – BELIEVE – CO-CREATE
Think it, believe it, then co-create;start with your vision, but don’t sit and wait.Don’t idle or dawdle or lazily roam —keep working, keep learning, keep building your home.
REACH OUT TO HASHEM
Reach out to Hashem through worry and strain;His love stays beside us through sunshine and rain.When twists make no sense and the pathway feels late,trust everything’s good – Hashem guides our fate.
KEEP YOUR HUMOUR
If markets turn bumpy or budgets go splat,take courage, reset, and remember just that:What could be worse than your FIRE plan askew?A bird in your bedroom … then pooing on you!
THE LAST WORD
So Howard, keep smiling if feathers appear;and Liron, keep building your freedom each year.With faith and with effort, with joy as your aim,make work more a choice – and give thanks to Hashem!
With Love
Liron (Yaakov) Mazor ♡
South Africans spend an average of more than 23 days a year in their cars. From a psychological perspective, what effect does spending so much time driving have on our mental and emotional wellbeing?
Women’s Day Fundraising Event presented by UJW, JNFSA with catering by Let’s Nosh
Join UJW & JNFSA this Women’s Day for a memorable evening of inspiration, connection, and delicious food as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah together. Pre-Rosh Hashanah Simanim Cooking Demonstration and Inspirational Talk presented by Batsheva Phillips from Let’s Nosh
Fundraising from this event will support projects assisting displaced women and families.
Event details:
Monday, 10 August 2026 (Public Holiday)
4:30pm for 5:00pm
R650 per person (Special R1149 for 2 tickets)
What to expect:
Welcome Drink & Delicious Food Inspired by Rosh Hashanah
Live Cooking Demonstration by Let’s Nosh
Inspirational Talk by Batsheva
Sisterhood & Connection
Rosh Hashanah Gifts
Beautiful Hampers – will be available as part of the fundraising activities
1) Wired But Tired
How can you be simultaneously tired yet wired – the paradoxical feeling of being physically exhausted but mentally unable to switch off? Blame your stone‑age brain.
Your “human stress response” evolved to respond to short-term immediate threats (such as a lion) – not to an overflowing email inbox.
When the brain detects threat, a region called the amygdala initiates the body’s classic fight-or-flight response. Stress hormones including adrenaline and cortisol are released. Heart rate increases, breathing quickens and attention sharpens. Energy is diverted away from long-term maintenance tasks towards immediate action.
The modern world makes it worse
Modern stressors are psychologically powerful but biologically peculiar. Unlike predators, they rarely resolve quickly. Emails continue arriving. Work follows us home through smartphones and laptops. Social media creates a constant stream of social comparison and low-level vigilance. Even leisure time has become strangely porous, interrupted by notifications, messages and often the expectation of permanent availability.
The result is that the parts of the brain responsible for keeping us alert can remain partially activated for long periods. This matters because sleep is not simply the absence of wakefulness. Falling asleep requires the brain to actively reduce alertness. A network of arousal centres in the brainstem, hypothalamus and forebrain normally keeps us awake and attentive during the day. To transition into sleep, these systems must quieten down.
Under long-term stress, however, the brain can become stuck in a state of hyperarousal. Even when the body is exhausted, the brain continues scanning, anticipating and rehearsing. From an evolutionary perspective, this makes a certain kind of sense. If the environment feels threatening or uncertain, being fully offline may not seem safe.
In addition, artificial light suppresses melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate sleep timing. Smartphones provide endless cognitive stimulation at exactly the point the brain should be winding down. Doomscrolling combines emotional arousal, uncertainty and novelty – three things human attention systems find almost impossible to ignore.
Then there is rumination: the repetitive mental replaying of worries and problems. Humans possess a remarkable ability to mentally simulate the future and revisit the past. This capacity helps us plan, learn and avoid danger. But it also means the brain can continue generating stress responses long after any immediate threat has disappeared.
There is a way out. Consistent routines, reduced evening stimulation, exercise, daylight exposure and limiting late-night screen use can all help reinforce the signals that night is a time for recovery rather than alertness.
2) Good News!! The Earth will (probably) NOT be swallowed by the Sun
In about 5 billion years, the Sun will run out of fuel, first expanding into a red giant and eventually becoming a white dwarf that will continue cooling for hundreds of billions of years.
Will the Earth be pulled into the expanding red sun and disappear forever? Or, though long since rendered uninhabitable, will it continue orbiting the white dwarf remnant of the Sun until the universe reaches its eventual heat death?
A red giant is a star that has exhausted the supply of hydrogen in its core and has begun thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen in a shell surrounding the core. They have radii tens to hundreds of times larger than that of the Sun. However, their outer envelope is lower in temperature, giving them a yellowish-orange hue.
Over its main sequence life, the star slowly fuses the hydrogen in the core into helium; its first life ends when nearly all the hydrogen in the core has been fused. For the Sun, this lifetime is approximately 10 billion years.
For the Sun and stars of less than about 2 M☉ the
Suspensive Conditions in an OTP (bond finance/sale of a property). When is the condition deemed to be fulfilled? What happens if it isn’t fulfilled in time?
1) Some unscrupulous entrepreneurs are claiming that they can cure Stage 4 Cancers by wrapping the patient in a giant plastic bag, up to the neck and tightly sealed, and then filling the bag with bleach and/or chlorine dioxide.2) How did language evolve?3) We are beginning to understand how the Venus Fly Trap can shut – not leisurely over some 140 seconds, but quickly in less than a second
90% of South Africa’s cannot afford to buy new cars: What should new cars owners know about the types of vehicles that generally offer the best fuel efficiency without compromising reliability?
1) Restaurant Problem, Feynman
At a restaurant that you go to regularly, should you (A) stick to your favourite dishes that you know and love or (B) try new dishes in the hope of great and unexpected culinary delights?
2) The Lymphatic System – still largely unknown.
The lymphatic system is a network spanning the entire body, consisting largely of thread-like vessels and bean-shaped nodes.
Despite having been described in the first known medical scientific paper, the lymphatic system remained a mystery for millennia afterwards. Being extremely elusive and incredibly delicate, it is hard to study – the ruby-red blood system, in contrast, got far more attention. Lymphatic vessels permeate nearly every organ of our body. Only in recent decades have researchers begun to appreciate the profound role the system plays in health and illness, thanks to advances in imaging techniques and molecular beacons that shine a light on its inner workings.
We are getting closer to harnessing the powerful roles of lymphatics in keeping us healthy.
3) GeoEngineering, to reduce effects of Climate Change
Humanity will attempt large-scale efforts to block radiation from the sun before the end of the century, according to leading climate scientists surveyed by New Scientist, in a last-ditch bid to shield Earth’s inhabitants from the worsening impacts of climate change.
Two-thirds of respondents believe we will see risky interventions to tweak the atmosphere before 2100. Worryingly, 52 per cent say this will probably be driven by a “rogue actor” – such as a private company, billionaire or nation state – highlighting widespread concern that the world is moving closer to attempting such climate-cooling interventions without any global process in place to manage decision-making or mitigate the serious risks that deployment brings.
“- 21 Days is needed to form new habit? Is this true?
– PCOS (PolyCystic Ovary Syndrome) can happen in Men? Yup, and it turns out that the name) PCOS) is wrong.
– Even though we (Homo sapiens) evolved about 250,000 years ago, the rise of “intelligence” is more recent (according to some genetic studies) and is apparently linked to mental disorders (perhaps).”
1) Reptile Venom gave us Weight Loss Drugs
Yup, we got Ozempic from a fat little venomous Mexican reptile – but it took us several decades to realise what we had found!
2) Ice Cream is being DownGraded
Sometimes, it is so far from Ice Cream that it has to be called something like Frozen Desert
3) Musicians Peak with First Album?
freedom of activism,anti-terror legislation,sanctions as political tools,and whether governments are broadening terrorism definitions.
1) Disinformation Prevalence, One Quarter
One quarter of USA folk believe incorrect information such as “animal protein is healthier than plant-based protein” and “fluoride in water is harmful or unhelpful to health” and “risk of childhood vaccinations outweighs benefits” and “raw milk is healthier than pasteurised” and “acetaminophen, or paracetamol, use during pregnancy causes autism” and “vaccines are used for population control”.
2) Scorpions use Metals for Stingers
Yup, scorpions absorb metals that they get from their diet and concentrate in their stingers to make them sharper for longer.
3) Darkness Faster than Light
Amazingly, darkness can “travel” faster than light (ish).
Understanding the concerns around Duravis R660 Eco tyres fitted to Ford and some Volkswagen vehicles
It could take up to 438 trillion years for the average hacker to crack a password with 18 Characters according to Hive Systems: How predictable are passwords under 8 characters and why are people still reactant to create longer passwords
1) Seeds Can Hear the Sound of Rain
OK, so seeds “know” that it’s raining, and can “adjust” their behaviour. But where are their ears?
2) Penguin Knees
Do penguins have knees? Yup, and they’re permanently bent and we’ve discovered something weird anatomically
3) Celebrity Adulation
People who love to follow celebrities have certain psychological characteristics
1) When a sperm whale gives birth, about a dozen other female sperm whales cluster around her in beautifully sychronised movements and protect and help the mother and baby.
2) AI Data Centres Heat up 5% of World’s Population
3) Sleep 4 Hours per Night
1) Regenerative Power (Horses, Trucks, Railway and yes Cars)
2) Disinformation, 1835, Bat Men on Moon
3) Corporate Bulldust
Ever sat in a meeting where someone declares that your company is “growth hacking” and “working at the intersection of cross-collateralization and bluesky thinking” and called bullshit? Turns out you were right.
Arson and firebombing attacks on Jewish community were ordered by Iran
It was the first Pesach for Bondi survivors and families
Hate preachers granted Australian visas
Diesel car vs Petrol cars vs Electric car- when it comes to fuel consumption, expenses and which route customers are going considering economic climate.
1) CERN (who gave us the World Wide Web, and the Higgs Boson) just shifted some anti-matter (92 Anti-Protons) by Truck.
2) How do frozen fertilised eggs survive the freezing process, as may be used in In Vitro Fertilisation?
3) Shake Bottle with Water Inside to Clean it
1) Really weird businesses – that actually make money!!
2) Alzheimer’s Cured in Mice
3) Limb Maxxing = Get your leg bones deliberately broken, and then stretched, to make you 75 mm (3 inches) taller
1) Just 2 days of a high-oats low-calorie diet can reduce your blood chemistry for 6 weeks. But
A) first study only, small sample size,
2) A potential Universal Vaccine has just been unveiled. (It works against many different infectious agents, not just one).
3) Dark Energy might come from Black Holes (very speculative, but it might turn out be correct)
1) Spinal Cord damage can be reversed – in nerve cell organoids. Next step, humans.
2) ‘Pink Noise’ Could Be Harming Your Sleep Quality
3) With ocean level rise (12 micrometers/day, roughly one fifth the thickness of a human hair), ocean level are increasing almost everywhere world wide. But in Greenland, they are dropping.
1) Cancers, 40% are Preventable
2) Yawning sometimes reverses the flow of Cerebra Spinal Fluid (CSF) in your brain.
3) Tattoos can rarely make you blind
1) If you do just 5 episodes of accidental/incidental “lifestyle” vigorous exercise each day, just one minute long, that will reduce your risk of various cancers and cardio-vascular disease by 30-40%. That “vigorous” exercise is (for example) walking quickly on the flat, walking up stairs, etc.
2) There are some 10,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, providing Internet access to remote areas.
3) What is the most abundant vertebrate on Earth?
1) Stomach Burst due to Liquid Nitrogen Cocktail
For a long time, a burst stomach was a rare event. But modern cuisine (eg liquid nitrogen) is making a burst stomach more common.
2) I made a mistake. Starlink satellites are NOT shifted in orbit by toxic hydrazine, but by Hall Effect Electric Thrusters ejecting krypton gas
3) Tech Acronynms 2025
A.I. Factory
1) “Strange” Science Highlights of 2022.2) In a Hangover, what actually causes the “Hangover”Do any of the Hangover Cures work?And why do the Hangover Munchies lean so heavily to fats and proteins, rather than fruit and veggies? 3) Analyse a typical tea bag, and you will find the DNA of some 400 different insects! Does this mean that you are leading the movement to a primarily insect-based diet?
1) Israel’s new government has taken office with much ongoing controversy.2) Israel launched one of the world’s most advanced satellites into orbit over the weekend.3) The Bank of Israel has increased Israel’s interest rate again to 3.75%.
University lecturer fired over swastika to go back to courtLargest gathering of Australians in IsraelAustralia's most senior rabbi turns 104
1) Israel’s new government was sworn in on Thursday.2) The UN General Assembly has voted to refer Israel’s “occupation” to the International Court of Justice.3) Israel launched one of the world’s most advanced satellites into orbit over the weekend.
1) There are strong rumours that a prisoner swap with Hamas is imminent2) An Israeli ambassador to Turkey has taken up her post for the first time since 2010.3) The IDF is now more prepared to attack Iran’s nuclear industry.
1) World Locking-Picking Competition in The Netherlands – they can get into a Bike Kryptonite Lock in 20 seconds with a ball point pen.2) We are well advanced along the pathway of using “waste” biomaterials (eg, the pulp left over from making soy oil from soy beans, or from making cellulose from wood) to make bioplastics that are both biodegradable and can have better performance than plastics made from fossil fuels.3) “Strange” Science Highlights of 2022.