The Infernal Machine
The unexpected story of how Alfred Nobel’s invention of dynamite—designed to build the world—was co-opted by anarchists to bring about its destruction. From revolutionizing infrastructure to arming po...
1 Okt 202428min
Cue the Sun!
What started as Emily Nussbaum’s “guilty pleasure” of watching Big Brother became a deeper dive into the world of reality TV, leading to her book, Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV. From its ea...
24 Sep 202435min
The Power Broker #9: Majora Carter
This is the ninth official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman Mars and Elliott Kalan sit down with Majora Carter, a...
20 Sep 20242h 32min
Planet Money: Zombie 2nd Mortgages
Karen MacDonough had paid her mortgage for years, raised her family, and lived a quiet life in her Quincy, Massachusetts home—until one day, a group of strangers appeared on her lawn, claiming her hou...
17 Sep 202433min
Medellin, Revisited
Once considered the most dangerous city in the world due to drug cartel violence, by the early 2000s Medellin had reinvented itself. But gentrification is allowing criminal gangs to reap large profits...
10 Sep 202433min
Not Built For This #6: Maximum Temperature
The impacts of climate disasters are often measured in terms of property damage. But in places like Phoenix, Arizona, and in hot places all over the world, climate change is wreaking a very different ...
6 Sep 202441min
Not Built For This #5: The Little Levee That Could
Most of the stories in this series have been about places that are ill-prepared for the extreme weather that is coming their way. But this story is about a place that managed to get the kind of infras...
3 Sep 202448min
Not Built For This #4: Unbuilding the Terrace
All across the country thousands of people are living in locations that regularly flood, and many of these places will only get more flood-prone as the climate continues to change. Residents who live ...
30 Aug 202448min
