Before Sears filed for bankruptcy, it was run by a reclusive billionaire who'd call into meetings from his mansion on a Florida island. It was one of the unusual ways Eddie Lampert ran the department store chain. He also stopped investing in the stores. The CEO had outwitted kidnappers, and many thought he was defying skeptics on Wall Street, too. This is the story of how Sears stayed alive so long, and how it all fell apart.
Undiscovered - Party Lines
In 2016, a North Carolina legislator announced that his party would be redrawing the state’s congressional district map with a particular goal in mind: To elect “10 Republicans and three Democrats.” His reasoning for this? As he explained, he did “not believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats.”
It was a blatant admission of gerrymandering in a state already known for creatively-drawn districts. But that might be about to change. A North Carolina mathematician has come up with a way to quantify just how rigged a map is. And now he’s taking his math to court, in a case that could end up redrawing district lines across the country.
The Nod - Eric Goes Full Witch
In this week's bonus outtakes, Brittany explains why Disneyland is the best place to get drunk, and Eric dabbles in the occult.
We are back next week with a new episode!
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The City - The Takedown | S1 E7
A reporter scoops the FBI. Politicians get taken down in "Mount Henry’s" shadow. The six-story debris pile remains.
There's bonus content for this episode of The City and more at our website: thecitypodcast.com
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the memory palace - Episode 134 (The Dress in the Closet)
The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia.
A note: this here is a Halloween episode. They get creepy.
Music
We hear both Easter and The Attachment by Michael Price.
Some of DNA by Akira Kosemura.
Piano & Violoncello 1 by Irena and Voltech Havel.
Zucht 2 by Machinefabriek
The Walk from the score to Tender is the Night.
Rendez-vous from Allesandro Cicognini's score to The Indiscretion of an American Wife.
Read Me a Poem - “The Sheep Child” by James Dickey
Amanda Holmes reads James Dickey’s poem, “The Sheep Child.” Have a suggestion for a poem? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
The Anthropocene Reviewed - Pennies and Piggly Wiggly
John Green reviews an ostensible form of currency and a grocery store chain.
Brought to you by... - 13: Gangs? At Disneyland?
Once upon a time, gangs roamed Disneyland in biker vests. They swarmed rides. They got in fights. Or so we thought… The real story is kind of a classic Disney fairy tale: about a princess and her merry band of friends. But is there a happily ever after?
Undiscovered - The Long Loneliness
Americans haven’t always loved whales and dolphins. In the 1950s, the average American thought of whales as the floating raw materials for margarine, animal feed, and fertilizer—if they thought about whales at all. But twenty-five years later, things had changed for cetaceans in a big way. Whales had become the poster-animal for a new environmental movement, and cries of “save the whales!” echoed from the halls of government to the whaling grounds of the Pacific. What happened? Annie and Elah meet the unconventional scientists who forever changed our view of whales by making the case that a series of surreal bleats and moans were “song.”
The Nod - Ethiopian Lasagna and the Alchemy of Being Black
Writer Hannah Giorgis grew up eating lasagna the Ethiopian way, and she shows Brittany why that is the BEST way. Plus, author Michael Arceneaux describes his new book I Can't Date Jesus as "learning how to ho without the fear of God." He tells Brittany how he gets his life.
MUSIC
Music by Calid B, Cedric Wilson and Takstar.
RELATED LINKS
Check out Hannah's recipe for Ethiopian lasagna.
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