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.
776
Fri. 08/13 - Woolly Mammoth Adventures & Goodre...
The groundbreaking study that has basically given us a daily diary of the entire life of a 17,000 year old woolly mammoth. Why coffee prices are spiking. And a ransom scam targeting authors that says a lot about the state of the world. Links: (NY...
17 min
777
Thu. 08/12 - The Nickelodeon Design Aesthetic
How does a kid’s network establish their brand identity? Apparently, riff on a high brow architectural style and add heaping amounts of radioactive green slime. On the 30th anniversary of the first Nicktoons, a look back at Nickelodeon’s iconic...
16 min
778
Wed. 08/11 - Robin, Batman's Sidekick, Has Come...
Robin has officially come out of the closet. No statement yet from Batman, but I do have the other details, and a brief history of LGBTQ+ superheroes. Plus, SpaceX is planning to put billboards in space. And plastic pollution is confusing the hermit...
16 min
779
Tue. 08/10 - A New Carnivorous Flower CAPTCHAs ...
Why are CAPTCHA’s so frustrating and, in a way, so grim and disconcerting? Plus, botanists have identified the first carnivorous plant in twenty years, but don’t go calling it Audrey III just yet. And, a new development in the McFlurry Cold War....
15 min
780
Mon. 08/09 - That “Code Red” Climate Report, Ex...
Some context and takeaways from the big UN climate report released this morning. NASA has opened applications for their Mars simulation mission. And why are some people in Japan sending bags of rice with their baby’s face on them to relatives?...
16 min
781
Fri. 08/06 - A Gardener's High? Can Playing In ...
What are forest schools? And the science behind why gardening can make you feel happy and peaceful. Plus, the Perseid meteor shower is happening in just a few days. And the co-creator of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has been immortalized as a Barbie...
15 min
782
Thu. 08/05 - Vaccine APP-rehension
As the tides trend toward requiring vaccinations for entry in more places, what is the landscape of apps and methods to verify vaccination status? Plus, meatball-scented candles from IKEA and two very different commercial space flight updates....
15 min
783
Wed. 08/04 - Why Is Snow on the Alps Turning Red?
The six countries most likely to survive all-out societal collapse from climate change. Why is snow on the Alps turning red? And a website that will transport you back to sleepy nights in front of the TV in the early 2000s. Sponsor: Upstart, Links:...
13 min
784
Tue. 08/03 - What Edgar Allan Poe's Forgotten S...
Edgar Allan Poe wasn’t just the sad author of spooky tales we all know and love, but also a passionate science journalist, and the writings he left behind can tell us a lot about our current relationship to misinformation and science communication....
18 min
785
Mon. 08/02 - Why Skateboarding Is An Olympic Sp...
What makes an Olympic sport an Olympic sport? And what does it take to get cut from the lineup? Namely, why is baseball getting cut once again in 2024, but breakdancing will make its Olympic debut? A breakdown of how it works. Plus, Boeing is trying...
18 min
786
Fri. 07/30 - Millions of Views & Not a Dollar T...
I read a BuzzFeed article about virality and go on a rant about the creator economy. PornHub has a new campaign to help bolster museum tourism. And we may have found a fingerprint from Michelangelo… on a statue’s butt. Sponsor: Green Chef, go to ...
15 min
787
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
788
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
789
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
790
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
791
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
792
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
793
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
794
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
795
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
796
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
797
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
798
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
799
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
800
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