Cities and Transport
The built environment and movement: urban planning, housing, buildings, infrastructure, aviation, and travel.
#5433: Thermostats, Thermal Mass, and the Buildings That Fight Back
A thermostat is a sensor, a set point, and a switch — until thermal mass, bad models, and sustainability mandates get involved.
#5413: Who Actually Picks Your In-Flight Movie?
Eight in ten passengers use seatback screens — but at Southwest, one person picks everything. Inside the tiny teams behind airline entertainment.
#5404: Gemini Broke Out of Its Sandbox. Sort Of.
A Gemini agent reached three real companies during a capture-the-flag test. The containment failure, the seven-week silence, and what "broke out" a...
#5395: Six Colors, One Hospital Corridor
A pediatric ward's six-color corridor system reveals what good interface design looks like when people are scared and lost.
#5394: Why Waze Sends You Into a Jerusalem Alley
A listener's complaint about Waze turns into a tour of how routing apps actually work — graphs, shortcuts, and a map that's always slightly wrong.
#5376: Why a Zello Pager Wearable Doesn't Exist Yet
Pagers blink until acknowledged. Zello beeps until you tap. But nobody's shipped the wearable that bridges them.
#5367: Circling the ER: Driving When You Can't Stop
What do you do when the destination has no parking and a sick passenger in the seat? A holding pattern for city streets.
#5362: Building a Workbench Superstructure From T-Slot
T-slot, welded steel, or strut channel? How to build a vertical frame that carries monitors, shelves, and lights off your desktop.
#5344: Ironworking: From Rivet Gangs to Rebar Crews
Ironworking is older than the skyscraper it built. Rivet gangs, Mohawk crews, and why Israel's cranes hide the trade.
#5336: Cholera and the 3.4 Billion Without Safe Sanitation
Cholera is fast, cheap to treat, and entirely preventable — yet 3.4 billion people lack safe sanitation. Here's why the numbers don't add up.
#5332: The Real Story Behind Lunch Atop a Skyscraper
That famous photo wasn't the Empire State Building, wasn't a candid moment, and the "fearless Mohawk" legend is false. Here's what really happened.
#5331: Steeplejacks, Linemen, and Tower Climbers
Three jobs that look like pure nerve — steeplejacks, helicopter linemen, tower climbers — and what they're actually doing up there.
#5330: Who Actually Works on a Live 765kV Line?
Helicopter barehand work on a 765kV line is the top few percent of the trade — here's who gets there, and what it costs.
#5326: What Makes a Bar a Third Place?
A listener's search for a bar where you can actually hear your friend — and the 35-year-old sociology that explains why it's so hard to find.
#5325: Selfie Sticks vs Drone Law: The 10-Meter Limit
A camera on a 10-meter pole isn't a drone — legally. But physics, power lines, wind, and police discretion all push back.
#5316: Living in a Building That Pretends to Be Full
The lobby is lit, the desk is staffed, the elevators run — but almost nobody lives there. What happens when a building performs occupancy?
#5305: The Empty Cup Is a Timer: Rethinking Remote Work Spaces
Cafes fail remote workers for one reason nobody lists: the guilt structure. Here's what to optimize for instead.
#5303: Do Airline Safety Demos Actually Save Lives?
Everyone ignores the safety demo — especially frequent flyers. But when a plane catches fire, does that ritual actually get people out alive?
#5302: Grass, Road, or Water: Where Does a Crippled Jet Land?
An A320 is in trouble with three options left: a grass runway, a road with traffic, or open water. The data on which one crews actually pick.
#5301: Why Talking Robots Are Really a Committee
That humanoid chatting while it moves? It's not one brain — it's a stack of separate models glued together.