Cool Stuff Ride Home
Covering the most interesting and coolest stories that you may have missed around the world in about 15 minutes a day. Cool Stuff Ride Home looks at science, progress, life-hacks, memes, exciting art, and hope. This is the antidote to depressing headlines. Smart stuff in podcast form. Cool news, as a service.
Hosted by Reggie Risseeuw and Marques Pfaff.
651
Thu. 07/29 - Kids Are Using Soda To Fake Positi...
Why it could take you months to get a new sofa. Kids are trying to get out of class by using soda to fake positive COVID tests. And how to reinvigorate your health with a “microadventure.” Sponsor: Green Chef, go to and use code kottke100 to get...
14 min
652
Wed. 07/28 - Why the COVID Vaccines WEREN'T Hac...
How a task force prevented the COVID-19 vaccines from being hacked because, yes, that was a real and valid concern. Plus, the sometimes controversial history of timekeeping at the Olympics and the AI-based innovations introduced this year. And, how...
14 min
653
Tue. 07/27 - Are Personalized Digital Billboard...
The history and future of billboard advertising. The surprisingly big challenge of recycling bowling balls. And the YouTube Creator who just got hired by Lucasfilm. Sponsor: Green Chef, go to and use code kottke100 to get $100 off including free...
15 min
654
Mon. 07/26 - An Olympic Medal For Designing Oly...
A look back at when the Olympics used to give out medals in artistic categories, including the designing of Olympic medals, and the case for why they should bring that back this year in particular. Plus, some more background on how the wildfires on...
19 min
655
Fri. 07/23 - Time Keeps on Slipping, Slipping, ...
Rounding errors may cause winners to become losers and losers winners, Bezos and James Webb both fall to Earth, and beyond lobster shortages, now crabs. Links: (American Journal of Physics) (The Verge) (CNN) (Nature)...
18 min
656
Thu. 07/22 - Venmore You Venknow
Your payments for dog walking and, er, “love hotels” via Venmo are now no longer subject to global scrutiny, neutron stars have wee tiny mountains, smaller than predicted, pool parties by the hour via Swimply, and former Colombian guerrillas tour...
16 min
657
Wed. 07/21 - It Was in All the Papers
How did paper sizes fall into their century-long groove, how low-wage workers seem to have the upper hand in the job market despite pandemic job losses, and the very newest, freshest words are in. Links: (Mental Floss) (Snopes)...
16 min
658
Tue. 07/20 - Creepy Clown Town 2021
Was the Chinese seed scare of mid-2020 just a matter of delayed orders and pandemic memory? The Ever Green clogging the Suez Canal is probably a sign of things to come, not a one-off accident. And Wally Funk returns from space—oh, also, Jeff Bezos...
19 min
659
Mon. 07/19 - It Brings Good Things Back to Life
Coca-Cola brings your dead taste buds back to life with a new Coke Zero formulation that probably definitely certainly won’t produce a New Coke outrage, Olympic athletes can perform team gymnastics on the beds provided in Japan, and how to watch...
15 min
660
Fri. 07/16 - People Have Reservations about Dee...
The flood of robocalls may soon abate due to a technology named after James Bond’s martini instructions to bartenders, an ethical debate over whether we can revive the dead’s voices to simulate what they said or wrote in life after a documentary...
15 min
661
Thu. 07/15 - NASA, Don’t Flub on Hubble Trouble
It’s not mind reading, but a man’s ability to convey words is partially restored through electrodes and machine learning; NASA carefully prepares to press Control-Alt-Delete on the Hubble Space Telescope; look to the skies, the Perseids are...
16 min
662
Wed. 07/14 - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet ETAOIN ...
It’s all greeked to me, some new history about the old text “lorem ipsum”; Europa may hide its secrets more deeply than previously thought; and a man happily discovers 160 bowling bowls under his house. Sponsors: Indeed, Get a free $75 credit...
15 min
663
Tue. 07/13 - A Cache of Metal Type Found in Korea
Archeologists dig up a massive cache of 15th century metal printing type in South Korea, a baby beaver is born in Exmoor, what if ice cream but also macaroni and cheese, a video-game breaks records and may indicate a sales bubble, and Nic Cage’s...
16 min
664
Mon. 07/12 - The Heliopause That Refreshes
Houseplants became Instagram models in 2020 driving sales up by billions and overwhelming mail-order and garden-supply stores; we know a lot more about the bulbous shape of the sun’s shield against the ravages of the interstellar medium due to data...
17 min
665
Thu. 07/08 - Will We Still Own Things In the Fu...
New findings in the debate about whether the dinosaurs were actually already in a sharp decline before the asteroid hit the Earth. A rumination on private ownership and how, by 2030, we might not own anything at all, just subscribe to services. And an...
16 min
666
Wed. 07/07 - Algae Beer, Lead-Poisoned Emperors...
Could lead poisoning have led to the fall of Rome? The Australian craft brewery using algae to offset their carbon emissions. And Moderna has started human trials of their mRNA flu vaccine. Sponsor: Credit Karma, Links: (Washington Post) ...
16 min
667
Tue. 07/06 - Is the 4-Day Workweek Actually Hap...
Why do we have a five-day work week and could changes from the pandemic be enough to finally implement the long held fantasy of the four-day work week? Are we looking at a passwordless login landscape in our near future? And vinyl is more popular than...
17 min
668
Fri. 07/02 - The Restaurant Taco Bell Lifted Th...
The restaurant that inspired Taco Bell, its larger legacy, and the question of authenticity. Plus, the new species of beetle that was discovered in some fossilized dinosaur dung. And the communities of people who devote their time to uncovering the...
15 min
669
Thu. 07/01 - How to Stop A/C's from Warming the...
This week has proven we need air conditioners more than ever, but we also need them to be better than ever. Here are some of the innovations being considered. Plus, one of the women from the secret Mercury 13 program at 1960s NASA is finally getting...
16 min
670
Wed. 06/30 - Why 1980s Nostalgia Films Won't Die
What’s with the on-going trend of horror films and TV shows being set in the 1980s? Is sunscreen worse in the United States compared to Europe? And one of the sports returning to the Olympics next month has a deadly precedent. Sponsor: Credit...
15 min
671
Tue. 06/29 - The Underground McDonald's DIY Rec...
Why exactly were McDonald’s french fries so good back in the day? Why did they change and can the secret original recipe be recreated? Plus, a new sort of post-post-punk subgenre is emerging in the post-Brexit United Kingdom. And, a completely...
18 min
672
Mon. 06/28 - A New Extinct Human Species? The G...
As promised on Friday, more information on the so-called Dragon Man––the recently unveiled 140,000-year-old skull that may be a new species of extinct human. The science behind why all your in-person coffee dates since reopening have been so...
17 min
673
Fri. 06/25 - 20,000 Years Ago, A Different Coro...
Researchers have found evidence of a coronavirus epidemic from 20,000 years ago. A new blood test that can detect fifty different types of cancer. And what the lowercase “i” in Apple products stands for and why they stopped using it. Links: (NY...
18 min
674
Thu. 06/24 - Astronauts' Dirty Laundry
The growing attempts to put flavor back into our produce because, yes, apparently it left. An update on the lumber industry and what it could mean for the economy overall. And the surprisingly strange things astronauts have done with their dirty...
15 min
675
Wed. 06/23 - How to Recover from "Zoom Body" + ...
A very big and very strange comet-ish object has entered our solar system. Some tips to help your body recover from a year of virtual learning, working, and socializing. And the two badass twelve-year-old girls going to the Tokyo Olympics for...
15 min