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The Flight Before Christmas

The Flight Before Christmas

Update: 2022-12-239
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Description

At any given moment, nearly 500,000 people are crammed together in a metal tube, hurtling through the air. In this episode, we look at the strange human experiment that is flying together.


Special thanks to Natalie Compton, Julia Longoria, Mike Arnot, and everyone at Gate Gourmet.

EPISODE CREDITS: 


Reported by - Matt Kielty, Simon Adler and Rachael Cusick
Produced by - Matt Kielty, Simon Adler and Rachael Cusick
With Production help from - Sindhu Gnanasambandan
Original music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloom
and mixing help from - Arianne Wack
Fact-checking by - Natalie A. Middleton
Edited by  - Pat Walters


CITATIONS: 


Videos


Lou Boyer, the animal-flying pilot from our episode, has a great plane-forward Instagram account (https://www.instagram.com/loub747/). As well as a whole YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@loub747/videos) dedicated to snakes and planes. (Luckily, not both at the same time.)


Books


Richard Foss's Food in the Air and Space: The Surprising History of Food and Drink in the Skies (https://zpr.io/KZyTPJkSENVq)


Michael Heller's and James Salzman's Mine: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control our Lives (https://www.minethebook.com/)

CHECK OUT:

The Death, Sex and Money series Estrangement (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/deathsexmoney/projects/estrangement)


Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!


Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.


Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.




Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.


 

Comments (4)

Joe A. Finley II

First story felt like a "Public Transit for Dummies" guide. Never mind that flying is thousands of times safer than driving, let's perpetuate worn-out stereotypes about traveling in objects with strangers.

Mar 11th
Reply

Wendy Bruder

the same could be true for people who bring screaming babies on planes. if people can bring babies on planes, I can recline my chair.

Dec 28th
Reply

Count Constantin

no. no no no. blame the airline companies, not the passengers

Dec 26th
Reply

Richard Kairis

I'm done. this podcast has really dropped off since the change in hosts. are you saving good content for the paid site

Dec 23rd
Reply
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The Flight Before Christmas

The Flight Before Christmas

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