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Episode of the day: "Leanna Harris: Once implicated, never charged"

Listen to "Leanna Harris: Once implicated, never charged"

Podcast: Breakdown (S02 Episode 3)

A child left in a hot car. Accident or Murder?

Have been following the new season of this podcast. It's definitely a disturbing story but with so many unanswered questions and so much speculation. I can't begin to imagine what that baby went through.

Let this tragedy be the catalyst to raise awareness of hot-car deaths.

Harris Family
(image: from Facebook)

More information:

Fact sheet - Heat stroke deaths of children in vehicles

Preventing hot car related deaths on Today."The biggest mistake people make is thinking it can't happen to them," Janette Fennell says.

image: Jan Null, Department of Meteorology and Climate Science
San Jose University

Episode of the day: "Gary Oldman"

Listen to "Gary Oldman"

Podcast: Nerdist (Episode 798)

Great interview with Gary Oldman, the human being. I especially aplaude Chris' job in conducting the interview so masterfully. 

Podcast summary - "Gary Oldman chats with Chris about the highs and lows of being an actor, how he does not want to act in films he directs, and being reunited with Kevin Costner for their new film Criminal. He also talks about the interesting experience playing Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, how sobriety has affected his career, and his friendship with the late David Bowie."

More information:

Gary Oldman Bio on IMDb

Gary Oldman in 2014
(image: Gage Skidmore)

Episode of the day: "For Your Reconsideration"

Listen to "For Your Reconsideration"

Podcast: This American Life (Episode 584)

I swear that I try to branch out and listen to other podcasts in order to publish a wide variety here. But even though I listen to many podcasts, I choose today yet another This American Life episode!

This episode was absolutely incredible. An interesting story of a bogus social science study. A bit ironic that a new study, however, reveals some of the same findings the retracted study did.

And then, the most amazing story from the podcast "Beautiful Stories by Anonymous People", which is a new podcast I intend to follow closely. This story makes you think that so often we get trapped in our own inertia despite the opportunities presented around us. We have plans, dreams, ambitions, but inertia takes over and fear prevails. Sometimes we would be better off using Nike's philosophy and Just Do It!

More information:

Los Angeles LGBT Center

Michael LaCour's scandal in The New York Times and The New Yorker

Donald Green and Michael LaCour
(image from Michael LaCour's facebook page)

New study "Durably reducing transphobia: A field experiment on door-to-door canvassing" published in Science.

Listen to "Ron Paul's Baby"

Episode of the day: "The Gun That Wouldn't Shoot"

Listen to "The Gun That Wouldn't Shoot"

Podcast: Planet Money (Episode 694)

"Imagine a safer kind of gun. Imagine a company with a plan to build it. Imagine customers ready to buy it. Imagine what could go wrong. A whole lot."

By itself or even as a transition to more strict gun laws, sounds like a great idea! But is it really?

More information:

Donald Zhilka on Newsweek

Read this interesting article on Smart Guns in Fortune Magazine

Smart gun.
(image: Joerg Koch, AFP/Getty Images)

Episode of the day: "Same Bed, Different Dreams"

Listen to: "Same Bed, Different Dreams"

Podcast: This American Life (Episode 556)

This was a rebroadcasted episode worth listening just for the unbelievable story of the kidnap of two South Korean celebrities by Kim Jong-Il.

Podcast's summary: "Stories of people who are tied together, but imagine radically different futures. In one case, a movie star and her ex-husband plot against Kim Jong-Il. In another, a woman stalks her doppleganger. And sometimes, one bed is the basis for an entire relationship, even for a man who almost never sees the person who shares his bed."

More information:

The book Kim Jong-Il Production on Amazon by Paul Fischer.

Episode of the day: "Soul City"

Listen to "Soul City"

Podcast: 99% Invisible (Episode 207)

A failed project for a city exclusively for African-Americans. Would that really help the racial divide? 

As stated in the podcast's website: "In the late 1960s, a civil rights leader named Floyd B. McKissick, at one time the head of CORE (the Congress on Racial Equality) proposed an idea for a new town.  He would call this town Soul City and it would be a place built for and by black people—a land of black opportunity in rural North Carolina."

More information:

Interesting article about Soul City in the Citylab

Sign marking the entrance to Soul City
(image: Tijuana Brass)

Episode of the day: "Cellmates"

Listen to "Cellmates"

Podcast: Radiolab

"There’s a black hole in the middle of the history of life: how did we go from tiny bags of chemicals to the vast menagerie of creatures we see around us? The story of one cosmic oops moment that changed the game of life forever."

Improbable randomness! But still randomness! What a great episode.

More information:

Nick Lane's book The Vital Question on Amazon

Ed Yong's book I Contain Multitudes on Amazon

Although not mentioned in this episode, Lynn Margulis contributed greatly to this theory.

Check out Suzana Herculano-Housel TED Talk for more about the link between cooking food and the human brain.

Episode of the day: "Real Doctors, Fake Medicine?"

Listen to "Real Doctors, Fake Medicine?"

Podcast: Only Human

"What actually makes you feel better when you go to the doctor? We explore the power of a placebo – the most misunderstood 'medicine' of all."

The placebo effect, explained.

More information:

Article in the New York Times

Article on Ted Kaptchuk in Harvard Magazine

The experimental trial

David Kallmes
(image: mayoclinic)

Ted Kaptchuk
(image: tedkaptchuk.com)

Episode of the day: "The House"

Listen to "The House"

Podcast: Embedded

"Inside A Small Brick House At The Heart Of Indiana's Opioid Crisis." This is the first episode of NPR's latest podcast "Embedded".

Very interesting and relevant story. Free clean needles should be provided to everyone to stop the spreading of HIV.

More information:

The drug Opana

Opana drug abuse article in Reuters

(image: drugs.com)

Episode of the day: "Sabotage!"

Listen to "Sabotage!"

Podcast: How To Do Everything (Episode 237)

"How to defeat the Nazis and wind the Great Clock." Great story on a lesser known fact about WWII.

More information:

Simple Sabotage Field Manual available on the CIA.

The original document can be accessed here.

(image: CIA)

Episode of the day: "Present for Duty"

Listen to "Present for Duty"

Podcast: Serial (S02 Episode 11)

(artwork credit: Serial Podcast)

What's Bowe's fault and what isn't.

Last episode of this season. Oh no.

More information:

The discharge of Bergdahl from the Coast Guard in Time magazine.

Episode of the day: "AKA Leo"

Listen to "AKA Leo"

Podcast: The Memory Palace (Episode 85)

    Leo's cage, built into the aircraft.
           (image: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive)

              

Great story on the MGM Lion.

More information:

Excellent Jackie the Lion article on Mashable

Leo the Lion on Wikipedia

Episode of the day: "The White Elephant of Tel Aviv"

Listen to "The White Elephant of Tel Aviv"

Podcast: 99% Invisible (Episode 206)

Perspectival section drawing of the original building design
(image: 99% Invisible)

"Israeli buses regularly make international headlines, be it for suicide bombings, fights over gender segregation, or clashes concerning Shabbat schedules. One particular ill-fated megastructure, however, has been at the nexus of various lesser-publicized conflicts: a building in Tel Aviv designed to be the largest bus station in the world."

More information:

Article about Tel Aviv's Central Bus Station in Forward

Article in The Times of Israel

Youths practice their downrocks in Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station.
(image: Yifa Yaakov/The Times of Israel)

Episode of the day: "The Birth of Instagram and Tunisia's Jihadis"

Listen to "The Birth of Instagram and Tunisia's Jihadis"

Podcast: The New Yorker Radio Hour (Episode 23)

"Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger talks about how Instagram took over the world; the New Yorker's cartoon editor, Bob Mankoff, shares his three favorite jokes; and George Packer reports from Tunisia, the birthpalce of the Arab Spring, where democratic governance has led to an upsurge in jihadism."

More information:

Mike Krieger's Instagram

Mike Krieger in The Financial Times

To understand more about young males who join terrorist groups we highly recommend listening to an episode published here before entitled "Terrorism" from Hidden Brain.

Mike Krieger

Episode of the day: "The Man in the Zoo"

Listen to "The Man in the Zoo"

Podcast: Radio Diaries (Episode 47)



"In 1906, New York’s Bronx Zoo was the largest zoo in the world. More than 800 birds, reptiles and beasts of all kinds. But that year, the zoo introduced a new exhibit that would quickly became its most popular attraction. In the monkey house, right next to an orangutan, there was a man… inside a cage."

More information:

Article in The Guardian about Ota Benga's life

Episode of the day: "Proof"

Listen to "Proof"

Podcast: Snap Judgement (Episode 606)

Three great stories. Even though I'm not a great fan of fictional stories on podcasts, really enjoyed The One About the Dead Dog. We all know someone who has the most unbelievable stories about themselves and make us wonder if there is truth in all that...

More information:

Eddie Lowery on the Innocence Project

Eddie Lowery on After Hours

The Kroger's on the BBC News

The Kroger's in The New York Times

Episode of the day: "Apple's Security Debate is Everyone's Problem (Including You)"

"Apple's Security Debate is Everyone's Problem (Including Yours)"

Podcast: Note to Self

"Russel Banks was one of several prolific writers who signed a letter last month calling for the FBI to stand down in their attempt to hack Apple."

Sorry Mr. Banks, but I'm with Mr. Obama.

More information:

Costumer Letter from Apple about US government demands

Episode of the day: "Tribes and Traitors"

Listen to "Tribes and Traitors"

Podcast: Hidden Brain (Episode 24)



"What happens when you empathize with the enemy and why showing empathy for another group can feel so threatening to our own tribes"

More information:

Avner Gvaryahu on YNet News

Breaking the Silence  website

Mohammed Dajani in the Washington Institute

Episode of the day: "Either/Or"

Listen to "Either/Or"

Podcast: Criminal (Episode 39)

"In 1983, three men were prepared to plead guilty to a violent sexual assault in Anderson, South Carolina. Defense attorneys did not want their clients to go before a jury, and arranged a plea deal. This left the sentencing in the hands of the judge, who gave the assailants a very controversial choice."

30 years in prison or surgical castration.

More information:

1983 Article in the The New York Times

Michael Braxton's new prison term in the Independent Mail

Episode of the day: "Update: 23 Weeks 6 Days"

Listen to "Update: 23 Weeks 6 Days"

Podcast: Radiolab

Juniper French in the NICU
(image: Cherie Diez / Times)

"An update on Juniper French, a tiny baby, born at 23 Weeks and 6 days -- roughly halfway to full term. And a whole universe of medical and moral questions."

I had this episode in my archives and it has been now updated. There is more than simple natural reflexes, there is a transcendental bond cultivated by natural reflexes.

More information:

Roe versus Wade on Wikipedia

Kelley Benham and Tom French on book collaboration

Juniper: the girl who was born too soon on Amazon

Tom French reading to Juniper
(image: Cherie Diez / Times)

Episode of the day: "The Man Who Cured Everything"

Listen to "The Man Who Cured Everything"

Podcast: Only Human



"In the early 1900s an eccentric fitness guru named Bernarr Macfadden discovered what he believed was a treatment for everything: fasting."

More information:

Bernarr Macfadden on Wikipedia

Mr. America book on Amazon

Charlie Foundation

Lennox Gastaut syndrome

Episode of the day: "Earth Pony"

Listen to "Earth Pony"

Podcast: Reply All (Episode 58)


Amidst the campaign that no one had anticipated, forecasters try their best bets.

"The truth behind Carl Diggler, the internet’s most successful election forecaster."

More information:

Carl Diggler's Blog cafe.com

Nate Silver's Blog fivethirtyeight.com

Paul the Octopus on Wikipedia

Episode of the day: "The Promise"

"The Promise"

Podcast: Snap Judgement (Episode 707)

"Some of them are worthless, some of them have infinite value, and some will never know how much they are worth... until you have to cash them in."

Listen to "The Promise"

More information:

Nathan Nicholson in the GQ Magazine and NBC News

Episode of the day: "Thorny Politics"

"Thorny Politics"

Podcast: Serial (S02 Episode 10)



"Are you hearing what I'm hearing?"

Listen to "Thorny Politics"

More information:

Cody Full and Gerald Sutton on FOX News

Platoon members on FOX News

Obama and Bergdahl's  in the White House Rose Garden

Episode of the day: "Your Quantified Body, Your Quantified Self"

"Your Quantified Body, Your Quantified Self"

Podcast: Note to Self



"What happens when we start thinking of ourselves as walking, breathing, calorie-consuming piles of data?"

Listen to "Your Quantified Body, Your Quantified Self"

Episode of the day: "Frequent Flyer Miles"

"Frequent Flyer Miles"

Podcast: Surprisingly Awesome (Episode 8)



Aren't we all in on way or another trapped in a frequent flyer miles program?

Listen to "Frequent Flyer Miles"

More information:

Article from the Wall Street Journal

Pudding Guy on Wikipedia

"A Hedge Fund, a Country, and a Big Sailboat"

"A Hedge Fund, a Country, and a Big Sailboat"

Podcast: Planet Money (Episode 689)



"Argentina decided that it could take on the world—it defaulted on its loans, dug in its heels and took a hard line against its lenders. The country would not pay what it was owed. Lenders blinked. Victory seemed near. But a group of hedge funds had a different plan. They took the entire country to court."

Listen to "A Hedge Fund, a Country, and a Big Sailboat"

Hans Humes, the "good guy" on Wikipedia

Article on The New York Times

Episode of the day: "Behind Family Lines"

"Behind Family Lines"

Podcast: The Longest Shortest Time (Episode 77)

"Darlene's childhood dream was to join the military. She didn't imagine she'd also be raising three children solo."

What an incredibly brave woman!

Listen to "Behind Family Lines"

Episode of the day: "Seesawing Libidos"

"Seesawing Libidos"

Podcast: Modern Love (Episode 9)



As Michele Weiner-Davis puts it during her TED talk "Use the Nike philosophy and - Just do it!"

The actor Stephen Bogardus reads the essay “Finding Equilibrium in Seesawing Libidos,” about a hypersexualized wife and a husband struggling to keep up.

Listen to "Seesawing Libidos"

More information:

"The sex-starved marriage" TED Talk by Michele Weiner-Davis

The article "Finding Equilibrium in Seesawing libidos from The New York Times

Episode of the day: "The Government's Fake Bank for Drug Money"

"The Government's Fake Bank for Drug Money"

Podcast: Planet Money (Episode 418)

"One day in the early 1990s, a man walked into the U.S. embassy in Ecuador. He said he had information on how to go after some of most powerful drug traffickers in the world"

Getting rid of the 100 dollar bill and the 500 euro bill would be an extra help!

Listen to "The Government's Fake Bank for Drug Money"

Episode of the day: "Milk Wanted"

"Milk Wanted"

Podcast: Reply All (Episode 57)



Very interesting episode for mums, dads and entrepreneurs...

"There are parents in the US desperate for breast milk and others who have too much milk and end up pouring it down the sink. Reply All wades into the world of breast milk markets, and discovers a breast milk paradise, shady breast milk scammers, and the surprising history of breast milk in the United States"

Listen to "Milk Wanted"

More information:

Article "Why Brazil loves Breastfeeding" from The Atlantic

Article about the history of breast milk in The New Yorker

The original Fritz Talbot's article in The Journal of the American Medical Association

Episode of the day: "How Freak Shows Worked"

"How Freak Shows Worked"

Podcast: Stuff You Should Know



This podcast has generally interesting topics, but hosts Josh and Chuck sometimes get lost in redundant, off-topic information and therefore their episodes are rarely my favorites. But this week, despite the trivialities, I truly enjoyed listening to their episode. They end with an interesting note concerning moral ambiguity. How fair it is to judge the audience, the performers or the managers of these shows?

"Not too long ago, people would pay money to gawk and stare at a performer with a physical disformity. They were called freakshows and they began in large part thanks to P.T. Barnum, whose circus we still enjoy today. Sounds awful, but some of these performers became rich folks as a result. Exploitive? You decide."

Listen to "How Freak Shows Worked"

More information:

Joice Heth on the JSTOR

Zip the Pinhead on The Human Marvels