Flightless Bird - David Farrier

Latest Episodes:

Ice Aug 08, 2023

Show notes

This week on Flightless Bird David Farrier investigates America’s obsession with ice. From excessive ice in drinks to the joy of frozen food, Farrier finds that ice is deeply American. Meeting with Reid Mitenbuler, the author of Bourbon Empire, David discovers the story of Frederic “The Ice King” Tudor, who dug up ice from the lakes of New England and got America, and the world, hooked on ice in the 1800s. Farrier then heads to New York to meet writer and academic Heidi Julavits, who muses about the significance of ice in American culture, and tells David about her icy memories from Maine… and 2023’s Coachella. Farrier discovers how the Holiday Inn made ice machines mandatory in American hotels, before he considers the fact Americans want to cryogenically freeze themselves to live forever. There is no denying it: Americans love ice.

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School Cafeterias Jul 25, 2023

Show notes

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier goes behind the scenes of the food that’s dished up to 30 million American kids at the school cafeteria. Back in New Zealand, they don't have school cafeterias, so all he knows is what he's learned from Euphoria and Saved By The Bell. In Hemet, Farrier meets Kate Kloet, assistant director of nutrition services for Hemet Unified School District. Donning a hairnet, she takes Farrier into the industrial kitchen where food is made for 23,000 kids in the area before the pair drive to a local high school to experience the cafeteria. What do the kids think of the food and what do they think of the American high school experience? Farrier goes back to school to learn all he can about the American high school cafeteria.

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Health Update Jul 11, 2023

Show notes

An update on Flightless Bird! David explains to Monica and Rob why he’s had to take flight to New Zealand. Defeated by the US healthcare system and his bad health insurance plan, David has temporarily returned to Aotearoa, New Zealand for some minor back surgery! This has disrupted the usual smooth flow of making the show, so for July and August Flightless Bird will arrive fortnightly instead of weekly.

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Independence Day Jul 04, 2023

Show notes

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to investigate what the heck is going on with Independence Day, one of America’s 11 officially mandated holidays. What makes this day so American, and how is he meant to spend it? To learn about Independence Day the day, Farrier turns to Independence Day the movie. Farrier talks to film critic David Chen of DecodingEverything.com to find out what made this film so patriotic it was literally named after the 4th of July. Farrier then tracks down Phil Grucci, President and CEO of “Fireworks by Grucci” - America’s so-called “First Family of Fireworks”. Grucci’s company holds the Guinness World Record for the "Largest Fireworks Display" ever recorded, and he educates David about why fireworks are practically baked into the Declaration of Independence.

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Attics & Basements Jun 27, 2023

Show notes

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier realizes that New Zealand doesn’t have attics or basements, so sets out to discover why so many of America’s 333 million homes do. David talks to Stephen Fox, an architectural historian and a lecturer at the Rice School of Architecture in Houston, who explains the practical reasons for these spaces, as well as why they’ve turned into habitable spaces. David then talks to filmmaker and architect Giorgio Angelini about what these spaces mean culturally to Americans, as paradoxically a place of safety and warmth but also of mystery and horror. The two of them discuss various formative experiences to be found in the attic, before David turns back to the egg episode, attempting to get closure with his best friend Rosabel following an incident where he cracked an egg over her head.

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Electric Kettles Jun 20, 2023

Show notes

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to discover why America is yet to fully embrace the electric kettle. Why does America insist on the stovetop kettle when it could be boiling its water so much faster? To find out, David talks to Bruce Richardson, a tea master who founded Elmwood Inn Fine Teas in Kentucky, and wrote a book called “The New Tea Companion.” Bruce is a man obsessed with the correct boiling point of water, whose worst enemy is the microwave. Richardson teaches David about the shady events of 1773, in which a bunch of costumed protestors threw British tea into the ocean in a case of tea treason. Could these events still be felt today in America’s rejection of the British invention of the electric kettle? Or is it a voltage issue? Tony Gebely, author of “The Philosophy of Tea: A User's Guide” has some of his own theories - theories which lead the creator of America’s premiere electric kettle brand, Fellow. Jake Miller prefers his boiling water on coffee, not tea - and he argues (somewhat in jest) that the electric kettle could have a massive impact on America’s GDP.

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DMV - Pt II Jun 13, 2023

Show notes

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to discover why America is yet to fully embrace the electric kettle. Why does America insist on the stovetop kettle when it could be boiling its water so much faster? To find out, David talks to Bruce Richardson, a tea master who founded Elmwood Inn Fine Teas in Kentucky, and wrote a book called “The New Tea Companion”. Bruce is a man obsessed with the correct boiling point of water, whose worst enemy is the microwave. Richardson teaches David about the shady events of 1773, in which a bunch of costumed protestors threw British tea into the ocean in a case of tea treason. Could these events still be felt today in America’s rejection of the British invention of the electric kettle? Or is it a voltage issue? Tony Gebely, author of “The Philosophy of Tea: A User's Guide” has some of his own theories - theories which lead the creator of America’s premiere electric kettle brand, Fellow. Jake Miller prefers his boiling water on coffee, not tea - and he argues (somewhat in jest) that the electric kettle could have a massive impact on America’s GDP.

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Beavers Jun 06, 2023

Show notes

This week on Flightless Bird, David becomes fixated on the beaver, the rodent that’s become synonymous with Buc-ees, the giant American gas station. But David quickly learns there is so much to the beaver, the biggest rodent in the United States. With over 15 million of them spread over North America, they were once hunted almost to extinction for their pelts. David talks to Leila Philip, author of Beaverland, an incredible book about how the beaver transformed America. David learns that the beaver was responsible for creating America’s first multi-millionaire and how that money was turned into a real estate empire that we can still see today. David also finds out how important America's beavers were to building America and how we might need them to survive on a planet where wildfires are becoming increasingly prevalent.

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Drug Rehab May 30, 2023

Show notes

This week on Flightless Bird, David sets out to look at drug rehab in the state of Florida. According to the CDC, since 1999 over 932,000 people have died from a drug overdose. Since 1999, overdoses involving opioids have increased eight times. With those stats came an exploration of drug rehab facilities - many of which gamed the system and became corrupt. Why did Florida end up leading America in having the most drug centers per capita? What went wrong and has it been put right? To find out, David met with a number of former patients of rehab centers to find out what’s going on in 2023.

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Exotic Pets May 23, 2023

Show notes

In this week's Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to understand Florida’s obsession with exotic pets. Why does the sunshine state have more exotic animal species than any other state and, quite possibly, than any other country? David discovers that there are about 50 different reptile species now thriving in Florida - most of them imports. With that in mind he explores the burmese python, an escaped imported creature which is now eating alligators out in the Everglades, taking the positions of top dog in the ecosystem. David wants to find out what happens to Florida’s unwanted exotic pets, visiting the Everglades Outpost in Homestead to meet skunks, foxes, and wolves - plus the odd goat, lion and giraffe. He ends his trip by meeting Snakes, an exotic snake dealer who is dealing with the law changes in Florida.

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Flightless Bird – David Farrier

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