Flightless Bird - David Farrier

Latest Episodes:

Streisand Effect Aug 26, 2025

Show notes

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier meets Mike Masnick, the journalist and entrepreneur who came up with the term “The Streisand Effect” 20 years ago. The term has its origins in Barbara Streisland suing someone for $50 million for daring to take a photo of her house - only to have the photo spread to millions of people. Since then the Streisand Effect has been used to describe the effect of the rich and powerful trying to shut down information. Farrier and Mike discuss the legacy of what Barbara did, and its effects on the internet today.

LINKS:

David Farrier’s Webworm newsletter: www.webworm.co - please support it!

TechDirt, Mike’s site: www.techdirt.com

Kenneth Adelman’s site: californiacoastline.org

Lawsuit details: https://www.californiacoastline.org/streisand/lawsuit.html

Contact Flightless Bird: flightlessbirdchat@gmail.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cryonics Aug 19, 2025

Show notes

In this week's Flightless Bird, David Farrier explores cryonics - freezing human corpses in the hope they may one day be resurrected by future humans! We interview James Arrowood, CEO of Alcor, America’s biggest cryonics outfit, to talk about the perception of this practice and what it means for Alcor’s 250 bodies on ice.

Email us your feedback: flightlessbirdchat@gmail.com

Links

- Death To Dust: What Happens To Dead Bodies? http://www.galenpress.com/extras/extra32.htm

- Melbourne Woman On Ice: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-16/second-person-cryogenically-frozen-southern-cryonics/105517102

- A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/03/13/144721/a-startup-is-pitching-a-mind-uploading-service-that-is-100-percent-fatal/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pokemon Cards Aug 12, 2025

Show notes

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob discuss Pokemon Trading Cards. They’re joined in the studio by Alex (@chantastic_collection) to get schooled on Pokemon fandom and trading cards (David and Rob open their first deck ever!), before David heads to New York to meet Dave Suchmann, a man who’s combined his love of Pokemon with his computer savvy to try and make a sustainable business trading Pokemon cards. Now of course Pokemon comes from Japan, but when it was introduced to America, and then the world between 1998 and 2000, it went ballistic. It’s generally agreed upon that Pokémon is the world's highest-grossing media franchise ever - leaving Marvel and Disney stuff in its wake. So, strap in and prepare to Catch ‘Em All!

Links:

- David Farrier’s Webworm update on Fake Seizure Guy: https://www.webworm.co/p/fakeseizureguysentenced

- Dave’s Galactic Collectables: https://www.instagram.com/galactictcg/ & https://linktr.ee/galacticcollectibles

- Alex’s Pokemon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chantastic_collection

Email Flightless Bird with your feedback: flightlessbirdchat@gmail.com

Flightless Bird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast

Flightless Bird merch and links: https://www.flightlessbirdpod.com/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Home Alone House Aug 05, 2025

Show notes

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob talk about one of the most iconic American movies of all time: Home Alone. David then meets Lauren, who not only loves Home Alone - but grew up in the Home Alone house. She was there during the entire shoot, observing the whole thing through the eyes of a six year old. This episode is part of Flightless Bird’s very unofficial “Chicago Week."

LINKS:

- Flightless Bird presents: METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER. Saturday August 23 in Los Angeles: https://www.americancinematheque.com/now-showing/flightless-bird-presents-metallica-some-kind-of-monster-8-23-25/

- If have any feedback we are always flightlessbirdchat@gmail.com

- You can get t-shirts at www.flightlessbirdpod.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deep Dish Pizza Jul 29, 2025

Show notes

In this week’s episode, Rob takes David around Chicago visiting some of his favourite deep dish pizza spots. The pair check out Pizano’s, Pequod’s, Lou Malnati's and Chicago's Pizza. They also stop by Goose Island so David can try Rob’s old favourite beer.

- Pizano’s Pizza: https://www.pizanoschicago.com

- Pequod’s Pizza: https://pequodspizza.com

- Lou Malnati's: https://www.loumalnatis.com

- Chicago's Pizza: https://chicagos-pizza.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Live in Chicago: Joe Berlinger, Italian Beef, and Possums Jul 22, 2025

Show notes

This week’s episode was recorded live in Chicago, where Rob and David brought Flightless Bird to Park West on July 10. They share their thoughts and feelings about Chicago, before interviewing legendary documentary maker Joe Berlinger about his work. Berlinger talks about recently EP’ing a doc about the “tylenol murders” that took place in Chicago in 1982. They then talk about some of the films he’s directed, including Brother’s Keeper, the Paradise Lost trilogy, and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. They then chat about the Dahmer Tapes and his narrative film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile - and his upcoming series The Son of Sam Tapes. Next the Flightless Bird stage is taken by sandwich chef Jeff Mauro who feeds David some unique Chicago food, and then Nina Salem of the Insect Asylum presents Rob and David with a live opossum. Musical guests for this episode are the wonderful drmanhattan.

All feedback: flightlessbirdchat@gmail.com

T-shirts and other show info: www.flightlessbirdpod.com

THANKS TO:

- Joe Berlinger is a documentary filmmaker and producer. Director of such films as Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and Extremely Wicked. @joeberlingerfilms

- Jeff Mauro is the co-host of the Food Network series The Kitchen, host of Sandwich King, $24 in 24, and the Come On Over podcast, CEO & Founder of @MauroProvisions @jeffmauro

- Nina Salem of the Insect Asylum @theinsectasylum

- Music by drmanhattan @drmanhattanboots

- Photos by Lenny Gilmore @lennygilmore

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Live in Denver: Cryonics, Hearse Club, Ice Core, & Wolf Reintroduction Jul 15, 2025

Show notes

This week’s Flightless Bird is Live From Denver! Rob and David explore the sights and sounds of Denver, CO, presenting their findings to a very fun crowd at the beautiful Cervantes Ballroom. They are joined by four guests that each bring a fascinating aspect of Denver and Colorado to life: The CEO of a cryonics company who has 250 human bodies and heads on ice, the head a hearse club, an expert from the largest Ice Core story facility on the planet, and a professor deeply involved with reintroducing gray wolves to Colorado. Musician Matthew Logan Vasquez provides live music including his rendition of the Flightless Bird themesong, and Happy Cones, founded by New Zealander Hap Cameron, delivers some hokey pokey ice cream to Rob! Thanks to our audience for their wonderful questions.

Email us with your thoughts and ideas: flightlessbirdchat@gmail.com
Merch & Show Info: www.flightlessbirdpod.com

ABOUT OUR LIVE GUESTS + LINKS
- James Arrowood is the CEO and President of ALCOR, a non-profit organization dedicated to cryonics here in America: They have over 1500 members, 250 who are currently frozen, waiting for science to catch up: https://www.alcor.org/
- Zachary Helm is leader of the Denver Hearse Club, and has the best haircut in the whole of Denver: https://hearseclub.com/about/about.htm
- Richard Nunn is Assistant Curator at the National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility in Lakewood, Colorado. There he oversees ice cores from places like Antarctica and Greenland, that are stored in a large freezer kept at -36 degrees. His primary job is to distribute samples of this precious ice to scientists all around the world - as they look at perfectly preserved gas bubbles trapped in the ice to find out what the heck is going on with global warming: https://icecores.org/
- Joanna Lambert is an environmental studies professor at the University of Colorado. She has been deeply involved with the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, and for some reason she agreed to come talk at a show that featured a Cryonics Expert, the leader of a hearse club and a mad scientist obsessed with ice: https://www.joannalambert.com/
- Matthew Logan Vasquez: @matthewloganvasquez
- Happy Cones Ice cream: https://happyconesco.com/

- Photography: Andrew Rowley @guacarowley

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Candy Jul 08, 2025

Show notes

In this week’s Flightless Bird, Rob takes David to Vons. There they each pick their five favourite American candies, ready to taste test back at the studio. They also pick a bunch of American candy David has never tried, so he can fill his blood with American sugar and become 200% more American.

Live show tickets for Chicago on July 10: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiCHI

If you want to contact Flightless Bird, we are always at: flightlessbirdchat@gmail.com
T-shirts are available here: flightlessbirdpod.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prison Firefighters Jul 01, 2025

Show notes

Trigger warning: Today’s episode is very much adults only.

In this week’s episode, Flightless Bird explores incarcerated firefighters, talking to former inmate Matthew Hahn who signed up to fight fires when he was serving time. Hahn brings his lived experience to this episode, talking about his time inside and his rehabilitation and road to recovery. The episode takes a turn when we discover what led Matt to this prison term - and how he got out early.

Links:
Matt can be found @hahnscratch on social media, or at www.matthewhahn.com
Live show tickets for Denver on July 3: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiDEN
Live show tickets for Chicago on July 10: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiCHI
Email us: flightlessbirdchat@gmail.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subway Jun 24, 2025

Show notes

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob look at Subway - breaking down what America loves about the sandwich, before dining at a Subway and ordering all things footlong. Of course, they also examine the Jared Fogle disaster - and read some of the favourite listener feedback.

Email us: flightlessbirdchat@gmail.com

Live show tickets for Denver on July 3: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiDEN
Live show tickets for Chicago on July 10: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiCHI

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Flightless Bird – David Farrier

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected