Podcast Episodes
Back to Search
The Real Book
Episode 438
Since the mid-1970s, almost every jazz musician has owned a copy of the same book. It has a peach-colored cover, a chunky, 1970s-style logo, and a bl…
4 years, 11 months ago
Science Vs Snakes
Episode 437
More than 100,000 people die every year from snake bites. Snake venom can have up to 200 different toxins inside it and each toxin has a different ho…
4 years, 11 months ago
Oops, Our Bad
Episode 436
In the 20th century, humans became very good at the control of nature, but now that we’ve spent some time with the consequences, such as species exti…
4 years, 11 months ago
The Megaplex!
Episode 435
Back in the early 1990s, movie theaters weren't that great. The auditoriums were cramped and narrow, and the screen was dim. But in 1995, the AMC Gra…
4 years, 11 months ago
Artistic License
Episode 434
Idaho was the first state to slap a slogan on a license plate, “Idaho Potatoes,” which may not seem like a big deal, but it turns out this idea would…
5 years ago
Florence Nightingale: Data Viz Pioneer
Episode 433
Victorian nurse Florence Nightingale (played in this episode by her distant cousin Helena Bonham Carter) is a hero of modern medicine - but her great…
5 years ago
The Batman and the Bridge Builder
Episode 432
Mark Bloschock is an engineer from Texas, and in the late 1970s he got a job with the Texas Department of Transportation renovating the Congress Aven…
5 years ago
12 Heads from the Garden of Perfect Brightness
Episode 431
The story of the twelve bronze zodiac heads that are at the center of a fight over the repatriation of Chinese cultural heritage. Most believe all su…
5 years ago
Judas and the Black Messiah, Episode 1: The Chairman
Proximity, 99% Invisible, and Warner Bros. present the “Judas and the Black Messiah Podcast,” an official film companion from the Radiotopia podcast …
5 years ago
The Doom Boom
Episode 430
Bradley Garrett is the author of Bunker: Building for the Times. People have always built underground survival shelters to stay safe from things like…
5 years, 1 month ago