LISTEN TO THIS | Big Solution for a Little Problem

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I'm a podcast junkie, and LISTEN TO THIS is a quick recap of an recent episode that I can't quit thinking and talking about.

99% INVISIBLE | Episode 90A: Strowger Switch

When the wife of a Kansas City undertaker took advantage of her position as a telephone operator and redirected calls for other undertakers to her husband, Almon Strowger addressed the issue with a global solution that revolutionized the telephone industry. Roman Mars spins this tale with wit and inspiration and provides a classic example of thinking big, tapping into the strengths of others and turning a problem into an opportunity.

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Old Technology

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When was the last time you saw an overhead projector in action? This beautiful vintage model was sitting in a business park conference room. My guess is that it never gets used, but nobody has the heart (or the authority) to throw it way.

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LISTEN TO THIS | Making Up America

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Josh Fox playing the banjo I’m a podcast junkie, and LISTEN TO THIS is a quick recap of an recent episode that I can’t quick thinking and talking about.

HERE’S THE THING | Episode #45 Josh Fox

Josh Fox is the filmmaker behind Gasland and now Gasland II. The first noteworthy section to catch is at 29:30 when Fox describes his approach to getting interviews which is the opposite of gotcha journalism.

I don’t pop in the door with a camera. I think it’s rude. Albert Maysles many years later confirmed this with me. Albert Maysles is a great documentarian. He said, ‘Look, the whole process is a friendship. You get to know and then everyone else gets to know.’ I believe in you can get the story and still be respectful for people and have decency for people and understand them and I much rather make a connection based on, ‘I’m a human being and you’re a human being,’ even if that means the gas industry is gonna turn me down again and again and again.

And the second is near the end at 54:20, just before he plays his banjo:

I think I’m gonna play an old bar song from 1814 and I was with Pete Seeger two nights ago. Introduced Pete Seeger and he said, ‘Oh, I know that song you’re gonna play. That’s on old bar song. It was the biggest hit of 1814 and they liked it so much the guy had to sing it twice in the bar and then clip clop, clip clop all the way up and down the east coast, they sold the lyrics. And you know that song, it became the National Anthem.’

If a bar song can become the National Anthem you’re always just in a position just making up America as we go along and that’s what I love about doing this.

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