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 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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The City - Operation Silver Shovel | S1 E6
A criminal flips and wears a wire. Aldermen accept small sums of large bills. The FBI’s investigation may be tainted. "Mount Henry" grows, but shrinks from memory.
There's bonus content for this episode of The City and more at our website: thecitypodcast.com
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Corrections and clarifications: A previous version of Episode 6 of The City misidentified the number of silver pieces Judas received for betraying Jesus. It was 30 pieces of silver.
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City of the Future - 2: Modular Pavement
In our second episode, we explore how modular pavement — which would allow us to embed technologies into our streets — could transform our cities. We talk to Tim Allen, co-founder of a start-up working to make pavement warm up and melt snow (Arctic Heat Technologies); Thierry Sedran, the father of "removable urban pavement"; and Chris Sitzenstock and Cara Eckholm of Sidewalk Labs.
City of the Future is produced by Benjamen Walker and Andrew Callaway. Our hosts are Vanessa Quirk and Eric Jaffe. Mix by Sharif Youssef. Music is by Adaam James Levine-Areddy (check out his band at amsterdamlost.com). For this episode, we also used two songs from the Free Music Archive: "Battle of Pogs" and "Ending" by Komiku. Art is by Tim Kau. Special thanks to all who made this episode possible: Kara Oehler, Claire Mullen, Tim Allen, Thierry Sedran, Chris Sitzenstock, and Cara Eckholm.