Garth Sundem on 'Brain Trust'

Bestselling author Garth Sundem's latest book, "Brain Trust" asks a big question: What would your life be like if you could ask 93 top scientists for research-based advice to best perform your daily activities? Sundem's book gives advice on everything from when to sell your car, how to shop smarter at the grocery store and the best surfing secrets.

Sundem joined The Daily Circuit to discuss the findings in his book.

"Mostly I did it because I think it's fun," he said. "This is what I like to do; I like to call up these people and have fun on the phone and tickle the keys in a similar manner. It's an egocentric take on why to write a book. I wanted to know the optimal angle on how to shoot a basketball. I wanted to know how to talk to girls. Really it was an excuse to call people and say, 'Hey scientist Joe, I'm really bad at this, how can I make this better.'"

The conversations often led in unexpected directions, Sundem said.

"I went into this thinking I'd read a lot of abstracts and do a lot of writing based on those, but what's funny is with all of these people I'd have an idea and after 10 minutes we'd spin off into something else and that would carry us through a conversation," he said. "For example with Ian Stewart I thought we'd be talking about math, but it turns out he was looking to use principle mechanics to get his cat to land on its feet. He had a defective cat so he was using a math formula to drop his cat and try to get him to land on his feet."

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