In this week’s Flightless Bird, David talks to a man who lived as a train hopper for two years. They talk about the lifestyle, dangers and chaos of illegally hitching rides across America using the railroad system. The country’s first train tracks were laid down in the 1820s - and since then, America has gone on to have the largest rail transport network in ... Show More
Feb 5
Nest Sessions: Peter Matthew Bauer on Growing up in a Meditation Cult
In this week’s Nest Session, we’re joined by Peter Matthew Bauer of The Walkmen, who brings in a fresh Kentucky Southern Casserole for David and Rob to sample. Peter shares some pie, as well as what it was like growing up as part of a meditation cult, the oddness of astronomy to ... Show More
56m 57s
Sep 2024
The high-speed train race
The first public run of the Japanese ‘bullet train’, the Shinkansen, on the 1st of October 1964, captured public imagination worldwide. And it wasn’t just the train’s sleek look or its high speed that made the headlines. Behind the train’s futuristic exterior lay a whole host of ... Show More
49m 31s
Feb 2025
Why do trains run on tracks?
<p>How do trains work? We went to Union Station in Washington, DC to answer a whole wagonload of questions with Amtrak's Patrick Kidd.</p><p>A few years ago, we left our studio in Vermont to hop on the Amtrak Acela train that runs multiple trips per day between Washington, DC, Ne ... Show More
20m 59s
Oct 2024
The Man Who Came From the Railroad
In this chilling episode, I tell you about the "Railroad Killer," a man who terrorized small towns along the U.S. railroads in the late 1990s. We follow the stories of Chris Maier and Holly Dunn, two university students who crossed paths with this brutal attacker, as well as the ... Show More
19m 41s
Aug 2025
America’s high-speed rail fail
The US is well behind much of the world in building passenger rail, especially high-speed trains. But we do have one major advantage. This episode was produced by Devan Schwartz, edited by Naureen Khan, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch, engineered by Patrick Boyd with help from And ... Show More
29m 35s
Feb 2024
Jake Berman, "The Lost Subways of North America: A Cartographic Guide to the Past, Present, and What Might Have Been" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
Every driver in North America shares one miserable, soul-sucking universal experience—being stuck in traffic. But things weren’t always like this. Why is it that the mass transit systems of most cities in the United States and Canada are now utterly inadequate?
The Lost Subways o ... Show More
29m 56s