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Latest Episodes:

Waze Lights the Beacons to Guide Drivers Through Chicago’s Tangled Streets Sep 19, 2018

Show notes

In downtown Chicago, near where the river meets the lake, the city gets a bad case of Escheritis. The streets double—sometimes triple!—into three dimensions, dropping below each other and folding around the basements and sub-basements of skyscrapers, cutting across the river on bridges hanging below other bridges, and eliding into drivable strata in ways that cities generally promise not to do. In Chicago, the multi-level streets of Wacker, Lake Shore Drive, Michigan Ave.

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How Zipline Helps Remote Regions Get Blood From a Drone Sep 19, 2018

Show notes

WIRED ICON Anne Wojcicki, cofounder and CEO of 23andMe NOMINATES Keller Rinaudo, cofounder and CEO of Zipline Keller Rinaudo began his career as the cocreator of Romo, a tiny toy robot. But for the past five years his work has been, well, bloodier. His company, Zipline, uses autonomous planes to deliver medical supplies—vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and blood—to hard-to-reach places.

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Mr. Know-It-All on Honesty and Social Media Sep 18, 2018

Show notes

How true does my online persona have to be? I like to be really curated. But my significant other is very honest. Too honest if you ask me. Who’s right? Should we be our raw authentic selves, or strike a pose? This feels like a quintessential dilemma of the digital age, but artists and philosophers have been grappling over this one for centuries, really.

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BMW's Tech-Stuffed Concept SUV Heralds a Fancy, Electric Future Sep 18, 2018

Show notes

Changing notions of what customers want from cars have pushed automakers to do plenty of weird things. They’ve unmoored the driver’s seat from the left side of the car, revived the rotary engine, and turned windshields into screens. BMW, though, is most likely the first to put down carpeting in the cabin of a cargo jet.

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How Fitbit Started the Wearables Craze That Got Us All Moving Sep 17, 2018

Show notes

As Japan entered the 1960s, everything seemed to be in motion. Construction swept through Tokyo as the city prepared to host its first Olympic Games. The TÅkaidÅ Shinkansen, the original bullet train, sped along the southern coast of Honshu. More cars filled the roads. The only thing not moving, it seemed, were people’s legs. Prosperity fostered convenience, which encouraged inactivity—or so a doctor reportedly told the founder of Yamasa Tokei Keiki.

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When It's Time to Evacuate, Cities Struggle to Help Those Who Can't Drive Sep 17, 2018

Show notes

Every hurricane season, news reports divide the country’s coast into two camps. You’ve got the leavers, who brave miles-long traffic jams as they make for higher ground. And the stayers, defiantly boarding up windows, stockpiling provisions, and kicking back on their couches—that’s how their parents and grandparents did it, anyway. Like most dichotomies, it’s a false one. It ignores a third group: Those who want out and can’t.

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To Solve Flying Cars' Biggest Problem, Tie Them to Power Lines Sep 14, 2018

Show notes

Of the many challenges facing the nascent flying car industry, few turn more hairs gray than power. A heavier aircraft needs more power, which requires a bigger battery, which weighs more, thus making a heavier aircraft. You see the dilemma.

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There Are No More Small Phones Sep 14, 2018

Show notes

On Wednesday, Apple introduced not one but three new phone models to the world: the iPhone Xs, Xs Max, and Xr. They all seem fine. But take note of what Apple took away. As of this week, it no longer sells the iPhone SE. Which in turn means the age of small smartphones has officially come to an end. When Apple debuted the iPhone SE in 2016, it was remarkable not just for its diminutive 4-inch screen size, but for its amped-up capabilities even given those constraints.

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Lyft's Bid to Rule the Streets Now Includes Public Transit Sep 13, 2018

Show notes

In today’s transportation landscape, opening the Lyft app on your phone is a sign of intent. It means that wherever you’re going, you’ve decided you won’t be biking, or walking, or taking the bus. Maybe you’ll share the ride with a stranger, but you’re definitely making the trip in a car. Lyft cofounder and president John Zimmer is trying to rejigger that timeline.

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North Carolina Chose to Ignore Its Dangerous Sea Levels Years Before Hurricane Florence Hit Sep 13, 2018

Show notes

In 2012, North Carolina legislators passed a bill that barred policymakers and developers from using up-to-date climate science to plan for rising sea levels on the state’s coast. Now Hurricane Florence threatens to cause a devastating storm surge that could put thousands of lives in danger and cost the state billions of dollars worth of damage. The hurricane, which is expected to make landfall on Friday, is shaping up to be one of the worst storms to hit the East Coast.

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