The Glaring Problem with Headlights

The Glaring Problem with Headlights

As What Next celebrates Memorial Day, please enjoy this episode ⁠from our colleagues at Decoder Ring⁠. What Next will be back in your feed tomorrow.

Something seems to have happened to car headlights. In the last few years, many people have become convinced that they are much brighter than they used to be—and it’s driving them to the point of rage. Headlight glare is now Americans’ number one complaint on the road. The story of how and why we got here is illuminating and confounding. It’s what happens when an incredible technological breakthrough meets market forces, regulatory failure, and human foibles.

So if you feel like everyone’s driving around with their high beams on all the time, it’s not your imagination. What once seemed like an obscure technical concern has gone mainstream. But can the movement to reduce glare actually do something about the problem?

In this episode, you’ll hear from ⁠Nate Rogers⁠, who wrote about the “headlight brightness wars” for The Ringer; ⁠Daniel Stern⁠, automotive lighting expert and editor of Driving Vision News; and Paul Gatto, moderator of ⁠r/fuckyourheadlights⁠.

This episode of Decoder Ring was written by Willa Paskin and Olivia Briley, and produced by Olivia Briley and Max Freedman. Our team also includes Katie Shepherd and supervising producer Evan Chung. Merritt Jacob is our Senior Technical Director.

If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at ⁠DecoderRing@slate.com⁠, or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Avsnitt(2397)

Everyone Is Lying to You For Money

Everyone Is Lying to You For Money

Back in the depths of the pandemic, what was an actor to do? Ben McKenzie started looking into cryptocurrency—and his research yielded both a book and a new documentary. The works are both non-fiction...

17 Apr 34min

You Come at the Pope, You Best Not Miss

You Come at the Pope, You Best Not Miss

In Pope Leo XIV, Donald Trump has finally run into someone he can’t silence, threaten, or sully. He’s not taking it gracefully. Guest: Christopher Hale, author of the “Letters from Leo” Substack, “a ...

16 Apr 27min

Does JD Vance Have the Juice?

Does JD Vance Have the Juice?

In a single weekend, JD Vance managed to flunk out of peace talks with Iran and hitch the Trump wagon to Victor Orban’s star just in time for it to implode. Like Kamala Harris before him, the vice pre...

15 Apr 23min

What If the US and Iran Are Both Losing?

What If the US and Iran Are Both Losing?

The U.S. and Iran began (and ended) negotiations under a shaky ceasefire, and are now at the stage where America is threatening to also blockade the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, Israel and Lebanon hav...

14 Apr 27min

They Came For Ibram X Kendi. He’s Still Here.

They Came For Ibram X Kendi. He’s Still Here.

Lurking behind—and sometimes explicitly out in front of — the Trump administration’s ire for DEI, its crackdowns on immigration, and its rhetoric about what kind of country America is, is “the Great R...

13 Apr 34min

Who is Sam Altman Anyway?

Who is Sam Altman Anyway?

If you had as much trouble getting along with other humans as Sam Altman does, you too might be eager to issue in the artificial intelligence revolution.Guest: Andrew Marantz, staff writer for the New...

12 Apr 31min

SchadenFriday: Washington Gets TMZ’d

SchadenFriday: Washington Gets TMZ’d

With Congress again out for recess—instead of, say, working to end the partial government shutdown or doing something, anything, when the president threatens war crimes—one media organization had the ...

10 Apr 7min

Why OpenAI Bought a Talk Show

Why OpenAI Bought a Talk Show

As OpenAI prepares for its IPO, the company decided to…pay millions of dollars for a tech talk show? Is this just what rich tech guys like Sam Altman are like now? Guest: Mike Isaac, tech reporter for...

10 Apr 20min

Populärt inom Politik & nyheter

svenska-fall
aftonbladet-krim
p3-krim
rss-krimstad
flashback-forever
politiken
blenda-2
rss-sanning-konsekvens
aftonbladet-daily
spar
rss-vad-fan-hande
motiv
rss-krimreportrarna
dagens-eko
svd-ledarredaktionen
rss-frandfors-horna
olyckan-inifran
spotlight
rss-flodet
grans