Aisling Rawle's The Compound explores reality television as a kind of dystopia. In the novel, a group of men and women live on a compound in the middle of a desert, where they participate in house competitions and vie for personal awards. In today's episode, Rawle joins NPR's Pien Huang for a conversation that touches on binge-watching Love Island as research, how the author came up with The Compound's rules and rewards, and how her characters perceive their own desirability.
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Some of the most venerated objects in many different religions are holy relics.
Relics offer a tangible connection to significant figures in various religious traditions, and they are often highly prized and sought after.
In the Middle Ages, relics became a big business, and if a church had the right relics, it could boost a local economy. It became such a big business that many people began to question their authenticity.
Learn more about relics, their authenticity, and the historical business surrounding them on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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Once upon a time, the states had a thriving tinned fish market. Like a lot of U.S. manufacturing though, that's been lost. But sardines are having a moment right now and that may help a growing effort to resurrect this lost industry.
Related episodes: Why do shrimpers like tariffs (Apple / Spotify) When a staple becomes a luxury (Apple / Spotify) We're gonna need a bigger boat-building industry (Apple / Spotify)
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Some in Congress are floating the idea of selling government land -- especially in the West -- as a way to pay down federal debt and free more land for housing. While this might seem like a free market "solution," we should remember that the government is a rapacious monopoly.
One of the biggest problems that humanity has faced for thousands of years is heat.
Excessive heat made it difficult to work in the middle of the day. Heat was especially problematic in the tropics, where a shockingly large percentage of humanity lived.
As cities became more developed, excess heat, all year round, became a limiting factor in how tall buildings could get.
All of these problems were solved with one invention.
Learn more about air conditioning and how it helped usher in the modern world on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
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Quince
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Mint Mobile
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To cap off our weeklong series on all things Hollywood, we're going to have a little fun! Tune in to hear Adrian, Darian and Wailin battle it out as they try to name movies based on cryptic descriptions of the businesses featured in them. You can play along!