Weddings, school dances, birthday parties for your great auntie—if you’re having a big function, the Cha Cha Slide is going to be on the playlist. But how did the Cha Cha slide become so ubiquitous? Brittany teams up with the Gimlet fam over at Every Little thing to find out. Get ready to learn everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the Cha Cha Slide.
We ask Alabama superfans which Iron Bowl hurt the most between the Cam Newton comeback in 2010 and the Kick Six in 2013, and ask an Auburn fan which of those wins Tiger fans prefer. Guests: Hunter Johnson, Ascot Friday and War Blogle
How dependent is the world on GPS - and what would happen if it stopped working? Tim Harford explains why it's not just our ability to navigate that would be affected.
When a fly hits a spider’s web the web sends vibrations to the spider crouched at its edge. This is known as remote sensing. The webs may help us design sensors to detect vibrations in the earth and the built environment. These vibrations could be turned into electricity. This could lead to small scale energy harvesting.
With Patrick Aryee.
#30Animals
www.bbcworldservice.com/30animals
Getting around cities today can be challenging. Streets are congested and chaotic, and new modes seem to be popping up daily, adding to the confusion. Cities won't just need physical infrastructure to prepare for these growing mobility options, but the digital infrastructure to help coordinate them all.
In this episode, hosts Eric Jaffe and Vanessa Quirk explore the future of mobility: author Horace Dediu talks about micro-mobility; TriMet's Bibiana McHugh tells the story behind GTFS and the OpenTrip Planner; MaaS Global CEO Sampo Hietanen explains the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS); and Sidewalk Labs' Corinna Li explains what Mobility on Demand could be like in the city of the future. For a link-rich transcript of this episode, click here.
City of the Future is produced by Benjamen Walker and Andrew Callaway. Mix is by Zach Mcnees. Art is by Tim Kau. Our music is composed by Adaam James Levin-Areddy. If you want to hear more of Adaam’s work, you can check out his band, Lost Amsterdam.
Amanda Holmes reads Wallace Stevens’s poem, “The Emperor of Ice Cream.” 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.
A surprising proxy battle for the future of Reno pits a brash strip club kingpin against power brokers in city hall. The winner-takes-all fight could remake the city—and ruin lives in the process.
What if we told you that every fad diet, fashion editorial, and #fitspo post on social media could all be traced back to racist pseudoscience? In this episode, Brittany is joined by Sabrina Strings, sociologist and author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, whose groundbreaking research parses the intersection of thinness, whiteness, and beauty ideals.
Alabama fans talk about what it was like to be a student during the Mike Shula era in Tuscaloosa. They talk about the ups and downs and compare it to the outrageous success of the Nick Saban era. And they discuss whether or not Mike Shula was taken for granted by fans at Alabama, considering the circumstances of his tenure. Guests: Ben Baxter, Drew Champlin, Will Nevin, Alesia Pruitt, David Smith, Matt Scalici, John Parker Wilson, Tim Tebow.
In 1881, James Bonsack developed a machine that made it far easier to mass-produce cigarettes. But at the time, other tobacco products were much more popular – so manufacturers had to find new ways of getting people’s attention. Tim Harford explains why the methods they devised are still working on consumers today.