Three recent podcast episodes that made us smarter.

Possibly impossible problems, possibly impossible politics, definitely impossible teenagers? Not sure if there's a discernible thread through these episodes, but they all were interesting in their own ways.

Aug 12, 2020

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Often referred to as “poor man’s cocaine,” Captagon is already wildly popular in the Middle East where it sells for as little as $3 per pill and fuels the Gulf states’ party scene.

A drug called Captagon, the trade name for fenethylline, shows signs of following in fentanyl’s footsteps in the United States.

↩︎ Undark Magazine

New software enables stalkers to “unmask” pornography actors without their knowing.

↩︎ WIRED 1w

A fashion retailer uses an old psychological study to summarize how your shoes influence other people’s perceptions of you.

↩︎ Mr Porter 1w

If a new style were invented that had all the merits of the old styles (whatever you think they are), and that enjoyed their broad and deep popularity, surely any sensible traditionalist should be in favour of it?

An illustrated argument for “easy” (or easier) architecture.

↩︎ Works in Progress

A windowless telecommunications hub in New York City “embodies an architecture of surveillance and paranoia.”

↩︎ Places Journal 1w

Seoul has a 3,000 square meter void underneath one of its most iconic plazas.

↩︎ The Guardian 1w

Some portraits of US Army truckers arming the Soviets in 1943.

↩︎ Flashbak 2w

Baristas are invited to work and live in Rotterdam, at “the world’s first coffee hotel.”

↩︎ Sprudge 2w

High-school girls are worried that all their vaping in middle school gave them vocal fry.

↩︎ Airmail 2w

Creating another option for wealthier individuals—utilizing otherwise idle cars—is perhaps the next step toward closing the mobility satisfaction gap.

In Los Angeles, you can now rent athletes’ and entertainers’ supercars when they’re not driving them.

↩︎ Robb Report

Some brief thoughts on a Spanish apartment redone for “checkerboard maximalism.”

↩︎ The Fox Is Black 3w

A platform for discovering facts about representation in street names across Europe.

↩︎ Mapping Diversity 3w

The work we do helps to bring this regime down, and it is defending itself. If you are suddenly ill, please do not discount the possibility that you may have been poisoned. Tell your doctors. Fight for yourself.

What it’s like, as a Russian journalist, to feel pretty sure you’ve been poisoned by the state.

↩︎ n+1

A remembrance for a forgotten street (Coenties Slip) that played a pivotal role in New York City’s mid-century art movement.

↩︎ Art Forum 4w

New research proposes that our brains may sort memories by evaluating how likely they are to be useful in the future.

↩︎ Quanta Magazine 4w

A mountain biker tours the Italian countryside, looking for espresso.

Aug 9, 2023

A Norwegian movement known as Architectural Uprising is pushing back against modern Scandinavian design trends.

↩︎ Bloomberg Aug 9, 2023

“Board last on the plane. Ignore your boarding group. It’s okay.” A hundred things said to make life better.

↩︎ Out of the Blue Aug 9, 2023

Reading is letting someone else model the world for you. This is an act of intimacy. When the author is morose, you become morose. When he is mirthful, eventually you may share in it. And after finishing a very good book one is driven a little mad, forced to return from a world that no one nearby has witnessed.

“The appetite grows by what it feeds on.” Some suggestions on how to read well.

↩︎ The Map Is Mostly Water

Aug 2, 2023

“If I want boring carrots, I’ll buy them.” Some thoughts on the delights of growing your own carrots.

↩︎ oakland garden club Aug 2, 2023

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