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
Wed. 11/04 - Brian Eno & the Atomization of Soc...
Brian Eno’s thoughts on social media and the role of the artist in these trying times, as well as a related new finding that smartphones may actually be helping to pop people’s filter bubbles when it comes to news consumption. A new archaeological...
14 min
777
Tue. 11/3 - The Atheist Ban
It’s Election Day in the US. I’ve got some good and some weird tips for staying calm amidst the election storm. An AI that can tell if you have COVID-19 just by listening to your cough. And a deep dive on one type of U.S. citizen who can’t run...
16 min
778
Mon. 11/02 - Debunking & Distracting From Elect...
Heading into the U.S. general election tomorrow, a refresher on why polls can be unreliable and how to read them responsibly. An opportunity to own the vintage spyware gadgets of your dreams. It’s 2020: platypuses glow in the dark now. And a new...
15 min
779
Fri. 10/30 - Is the Pandemic Causing Prohibitio...
Why you’re seeing more young Black students working the polls this year. How the pandemic might parallel Prohibition's effect on the American brewing industry. NASA followed up a viral tweet with a literal link to their Soundcloud, and it’s...
14 min
780
Thu. 10/29 - Haunted Bathrooms & Lab-Grown Brains
Can lab-grown brains become conscious? And should we let them? Burger King’s latest creepy stunt to try to rile up McDonald’s. And why do we say trick-or-treat, and what is Mischief Night anyways? Sponsors: The Jordan Harbinger Show, ...
14 min
781
Wed. 10/28 - 2020's Best Game Is a Cursed Real ...
A look back at one hundred years ago when women ruled a notorious wild west town. Some thoughts on the effects of technology on our ability to remember our thoughts in the long-term. And the internet is calling it the best game of 2020, but it’s...
17 min
782
Tue. 10/27 - Kazakhstan Is Very Nice, But Venus...
Throwing cold water on that whole signs-of-life-on-Venus news. A new travel guide to haunted hotels, based on bad Tripadvisor reviews. A study looking into why we don’t click or comment on certain posts online. And Kazakhstan changes their stance on...
15 min
783
Mon. 10/26 - Water on the Moon & Oreo’s Arctic ...
NASA’s big announcement has been revealed: there is way more water on the moon than we thought. An update on the murder hornet situation. Oreo has built a vault in Norway to preserve a stash of Oreos in case that Election Day asteroid, which is...
14 min
784
Fri. 10/23 - The Bat Who Went To Space
Do Venus Flytraps have a short-term memory? A new interactive database of every lifeform that’s ever gone into space from Earth. The Seattle bar that made a pandemic-safe pinball machine. And Burger King is getting in on the zero-waste game with...
13 min
785
Thu. 10/22 - The Rare Tree Needed for a COVID-1...
What does root beer have to do with a potential COVID-19 vaccine? A deep dive on that connection. A peek into the world of people who grow giant vegetables. And the Iowa woman who had her cat successfully cloned. Sponsors: Fitbod, Get one month free...
16 min
786
Wed. 10/21 - Co-Working On A Ferris Wheel
Today is International Pronoun Day so here are some historical facts about pronouns. Scientists have discovered a previously unknown organ in the human body. And forget about WeWork, a Japanese amusement park has offered up their ferris wheel as a...
14 min
787
Tue. 10/20 - Tardigrade Sunscreen & Cursed Twin...
Tardigrade sunscreen. Coming soon? How to enjoy a socially-distanced holiday season. Some promising methods for upcycling plastic into more valuable materials. And the curious case of the extremely moldy Twinkie. Sponsors: Fitbod, Get one month free...
16 min
788
Mon. 10/19 - The Moon Is Getting a Nokia Cellul...
The fourteen-year-old Texan who may have just made an important discovery for potential COVID-19 treatments. An update on the safety and new norms surrounding air travel. Nokia is building a mobile network on the moon. And the website that’s...
15 min
789
Fri. 10/16 - Will Plastic Bubbles Save Live Mus...
More and more humans these days have an extra artery. The 2020 Tony Award nominations and the very strange case of Mr. Aaron Tveit. A calculator that will tell you how much time you’re wasting in your day not listening to podcasts. And The Flaming...
13 min
790
Thu. 10/15 – 50/50 Odds We Live In a Simulation...
A new study puts our odds of living in a simulation at about 50-50. So, that’s a thing. There has been a second sighting of a person on a jetpack flying through LAX’s flight path. And tips to curb your phone habit, adapted from methods used to...
16 min
791
Wed. 10/14 - Can Virtual Public Parks Save Demo...
A thought-provoking proposal from Eli Pariser on how we can fix the broken parts of the internet by creating digital public parks. NASA drops their latest single: the sounds of the Milky Way. And how to make your own AR jack o’lantern using an...
13 min
792
Tue. 10/13 - A Star Spaghettified By a Black Ho...
What’s up with all those merpeople and sea monsters on old maps? Why Peru opened up Machu Picchu after seven months for one single man to visit. The supermassive black hole that spaghettified a star. And the Anti-Ad Ad Club paying influencers to...
18 min
793
Mon. 10/12 - The Indigenous Practice of Control...
It’s Indigenous People’s Day today. How and when did this start becoming a thing? How west coast governments are finally turning to tribal leaders for assistance preventing wildfires. A serious collaboration between Weird Al Yankovic and Portugal....
16 min
794
Fri. 10/09 - What OS Do They Use In Space?
What kind of operating system do they use in space? The science behind cocktails, to up your at-home mixology game. The 22-year-old responsible for the most viral beats on Tiktok. And the Connecticut mayor who isn’t taking any of John Oliver’s...
18 min
795
Thu. 10/08 – 1000 Years Before Darwin, Islamic ...
The Islamic scholars who beat Darwin to the punch by about a thousand years. A cool site for finding new books to read. The world’s largest ouija board. And naked celebrities teaching us about naked ballots. Links: (Vice) (Rob Allam,...
16 min
796
Wed. 10/07 - Paid to Gate-Crash Funerals
The twenty-four possible super-habitable planets that could be better than Earth. The man you can pay to gatecrash your funeral. The perfect conclusion to the skateboarding cranberry juice trend, and what the heck that trend was. And the winner of Fat...
15 min
797
Tue. 10/06 - Asbestos: The Secret Weapon Agains...
How the pandemic is changing our taste in music. The most ironic thing that could happen to a newly-published book titled Word Perfect. How asbestos might actually be a weapon against the climate crisis. And a Rocky Horror Picture Show-themed monument...
16 min
798
Mon. 10/05 - Vending Machine Operators Are Tren...
Archaeologists have found evidence of neurons in the brain of a Mount Vesuvius victim that basically turned to glass. The latest entrepreneurial trend of the pandemic taking off, in part thanks to influencers? Vending machine ownership. A Wikipedia...
15 min
799
Fri. 10/02 - Witchy Ingredients Aren't What The...
It turns out crows have some skills we once thought were unique to humans. Breaking down what exactly ingredients like “eye of newt” and “tongue of dog” actually are. And Neil Cicierega’s latest mash-up album, Mouth Dreams, is here to bring...
18 min
800
Thu. 10/01 - The Earth Does NOT Have a Black Ho...
Why are people saying there’s a black hole at the center of the Earth? The Irish Supreme Court declares that Subway’s bread is not actually bread. The surprising controllers the US Navy uses for its subway periscopes. And winter is coming. So here...
19 min