This week back in 1827, a chemist based in Stockton-on-Tees, England, made a striking discovery. Learn about John Walker's accidental invention of the friction match, and then light up your night with these brilliant matchstick cocktails.
Tim Wendel on Jokes
Acclaimed author Tim Wendel jokes about jokes.
Richard Lawson and the Hugging Machine
Richard Lawson, Senior Writer for The Atlantic's arts and culture channel, The Atlantic Wire, tells us about a few brilliant, lonely students who've turned a coat into a hugging machine.
Just Desserts 196: Listener Corrections
Every host makes the occasional mistake - misreading a recipe, seating enemies across from each other, laying out the wrong forks - but when we make them on the show, our listeners kindly tip us off to the errors. So, this week, we hear your updates on pasty popularity, culturally-sensitive sneeze responses, and adult juice boxes.
Heads up, 56 Up: Director Michael Apted on hobbies, documentary film-making, and his on-screen family
Rico Gagliano: Our guest of honor this week is filmmaker Michael Apted. He directed the Oscar winning movie Coalminer’s Daughter and more recently Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the latest of the Narnia movie franchise. But since 1971 he’s also directed the documentary series Up, in which he has followed the same group of Britons […]
At the Sundance Film Festival, John Cooper is your inside guy
The Sundance Film Festival is one of the foremost showcases of new independent movies in America. John Cooper has been involved with the festival for 24 years and is now its director -- making him one of the most influential guys in independent film.
Three Articles Ripe for the Big-Screen Treatment, from “Argo” Journalist Joshua Bearman
Journalist Josh Bearman has written for Harper’s, Rolling Stone and many other outlets; you may have also heard his stories on This American Life. But he’s best known for a Wired magazine piece called “Escape from Tehran: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Iran.” That article inspired one of […]
Coney Island Cyclone and The Thunderbolt
[The Cyclone now sits on the site of the first ever roller coaster – Switchback Railway – on Coney Island in New York.] It was the late 19th century and LaMarcus Adna Thompson was losing his mind. He was a natural carpenter and inventor but somehow he’d ended up in the pantyhose business. […]
Did I just steal a newspaper?
Is it okay to take the newspaper section with you to continue reading or is this a theft from the community bin?
Help table training my boyfriend?
After five years my nagging is proving to be effective. How do I convince him to shape up?