Commute | The Podcast

It may feel good in the moment but pettiness rarely, if ever, ends well. This week, some examples. You’re familiar with Popeye, the sailor who found superhuman strength from eating spinach?  Those green leaves earned a reputation as a superfood from the tie-in. Was it warranted? Chick-fil-A has built its business on a commitment to customer service. How important is customer service to the bottom...

1) When Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on their famous western expedition, it wasn’t just to find more opportunities for commerce. Instead, Jefferson had a bizarrely personal request for the adventurers. 2) Unlike much of the world, public restrooms are free to use in America. But why, and are we better off because of it? 3) There have been 275 million copies of Monopoly sold worldwide sinc...

1) The dot com bubble from 1995 to 2000 was fueled by speculation of how profitable mainstream internet use could be. Some, like Amazon, rode the waves to riches. For others, like Pets.com, things got quickly out of hand. 2) LOL. We text it without even thinking about it. So, where did LOL come from? 3) Comic books are filled with fascinating stories of unique characters. Batman. Superman. Wonder...

1) In 1998 a construction worker found something extraordinary under Benjamin Franklin’s London-based home - human remains. What was the founding father up to?? 2) Dwight D. Eisenhower. Susan B. Anthony. Sacagawea. We keep trying dollar-coins, and they keep failing. Why?  3) Even if they know you well, people that suffer from prosopagnosia can’t recognize you - in fact, they often can’t even ident...

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy remains a favorite topic of conspiracy theorists six decades after the event. It probably doesn’t help that we don’t know where his brain is… The murder of Amber Hagerman has saved more than 1,000 kids. It changed the way child abductions are handled. Why does her own case remain unsolved? Yo Dawg! In the mid-2000s, MTV was full of music videos and re...

1) Ride-hailing services like Uber have dominated the industry for more than a decade. Open the app, order a ride, and you’re on your way. But remember those yellow taxis we used to call? Well, they have feelings, too. 2) Paul McCartney is the most successful and famous rock musician of the last 50 years. At one point his fans thought he was dead and secretly replaced by a double. Things are about...

Do we ever stop to think where the words we use came from? Case study: Bluetooth. Wouldn’t it be great if you could gamble and never lose? Houston furniture mogul Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale may have figured it out.  In 1579, a mysterious man from Africa arrived in Japan and lived quietly and anonymously, but by the end of his time there he would become a legend. http://www.commutethepodcast.com...

Video games are big business, pulling in over $37 billion per year in domestic sales. So why can’t we make a good movie based on one? In the late 1600s, the town of Salem, Massachusetts, dissolved into total hysteria and violence during the infamous Salem Witch Trials. But what caused the panic in the first place? Acclaimed chef David Ruggerio had it all - published cookbooks, a show on the Food N...

Prices are increasing at the fastest rate since the early 1980s. While we all feel it at the grocery store and the gas pumps, inflation is hitting another market sector, as well - the Tooth Fairy. We’ve heard of someone or something being blacklisted, right? An action has happened that brings with it a level of distrust and rejection. In 2005 a new type of blacklisting began, but this blacklist of...

Smoking or non-smoking? Until the late 1990’s, this was the question at restaurants, bowling alleys, and on airplanes. Why did the smoking option go away? And we examine one town in America actually trying to completely eliminate smoking.  The Patterson-Gimlin film has been the definitive Big Foot documentation since 1967. It didn’t take long, though, for the two men to disagree on just what they...

For over 80 years the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile has been one of the most recognizable vehicles on the road, but when’s the last time you passed one? Solitaire and Minesweeper were preloaded in almost every PC in the 90’s. So - why? And did Microsoft have ulterior motives? During prohibition, the US government tried to legislate away alcohol. While the ban was eventually lifted, some questionable tu...

You find them in big cities and small towns, rural areas and urban subdivisions and, while cute to some, they’re a nuisance to many.  Where do all the deer come from?! Being tall has its advantages, but its disadvantages can be daunting. The touching life of Robert Wadlow. For almost 15 years, Flo has been getting people to switch to Progressive Insurance at an amazing rate. But if not for five un...

Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars last week. If you were watching live, you saw it but didn’t hear it. Let’s learn about the censoring work of our friends at the FCC. William Stewart Halsted is credited as much as anyone with developing modern medicine, including the medical residency program. And he was typically high on cocaine. During the Cold War and in the early days of the space ra...

Saint Peter’s University Peacocks became the 2022 March Madness Cinderella team by beating squads they had no chance against on paper, gathering fans and viewers with each win. Does NCAA tournament success do anything for the school, itself? When you call a customer service number it almost always happens: you get put on hold. The music that greets you, though, is more complicated than you’d think...

This week on the show: Metal detectors didn’t have a resurgence during the pandemic - they had a rebirth. A new generation of treasure hunters has emerged. Is this a good thing? Action Park was one of the most popular theme parks in America during the 1980s. Then the first person died. Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong was accused of using performance-enhancing drugs in 2012. The fallout had a...

What would you do for your favorite drink? What would you give? In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union wanted Pepsi so badly that it paid with the only thing it had - military equipment.  It’s been over 100 years since we’ve had a nice presidential beard like Abe’s or mustache like Teddy’s. Why don’t U.S. Presidents grow facial hair anymore? And should Joe Biden consider a goatee?  Becoming a profess...

Have a weird talent? Always had dreams of securing eternal glory with a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records? Figuring out your talent is the easy part. Author Stephen King is renown for creepy classics like The Shining & IT. But what about the time he found himself in a real-life suspense story?  G, PG, PG-13, R, and even NC-17. We know the movie rating system, but who decides? http://w...

User reviews are the first resource to help consumers discover how good a product or service is; what other buyers liked and disliked.  What if most of those reviews were fake…? It’s a horror movie staple and it always works - the jump scare!! Can a film lead to an actual, measurable shift in culture and society? http://www.commutethepodcast.com Follow Commute: Instagram -instagram.com/commutethep...

One of the most prolific serial killers of his time, Diego Alves was executed 170 years ago, but that wasn’t the last time anyone saw Alves. In fact, you can still meet the killer face-to-face today, his head perfectly preserved in a jar! In many ways, Whittier, Alaska, is just like any town in America. It has schools, grocery stores, and a city government. When it differs, though, it really diffe...

When a baby is born, it needs more than love and affection - it needs a name! Can you name your new baby whatever you want? Eh, it’s complicated and, no, you can’t name it Santa Claus. Yes, you just watched the Super Bowl, but here’s what they didn’t tell you.  Ten years ago, Jeremy Lin took the NBA by storm. Linsanity captured the attention of the world - and nearly ruined Jeremy’s life. http://w...

Every kid's favorite way to waste their parent's quarters - the claw machine! So, what are your chances of actually winning? 50 million people start their day with a cup of coffee and a crossword puzzle. Can these daily word games teach us about how we form new memories? And why do crossword puzzles end up entangled in culture wars? Peloton, the in-home exercise equipment company, was th...

Since 1887, we’ve celebrated the best weird holiday - Groundhogs Day. Every February 2nd Punxsutawney Phil emerges from his hole to determine how close we are to spring. How did such an idea get started? And how reliable is ol’ Phil? We share pictures of our children online without a second thought. Could they sue us for that one day?? In the early 2000s, Major League Baseball star Barry Bonds was...

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy remains a favorite topic of conspiracy theorists six decades after the event. It probably doesn’t help that we don’t know where his brain is… The murder of Amber Hagerman has saved more than 1,000 kids. It changed the way child abductions are handled. Why does her own case remain unsolved? Yo Dawg! In the mid-2000s, MTV was full of music videos and re...

Deep in a German jungle is a species of ant that at first glance seems to be normal, but while other ants die quickly, as ants typically do, this specific type of ant doesn’t. The secret of long life, however, comes with a cost. In the 1990s, the clothing brand AND1 with unique shirts full of insults, (“Go to church - and pray you don’t guard me.”) was a serious competitor in the athletic wear sec...

For more than three decades Dollar Tree has advertised “everything’s a $1” - household items, toys, kitchenware - everything. That’s been the company’s brand identity for 35-years, until now. Why is Dollar Tree turning into Dollar & a Quarter Tree? In 1999, Doug Lindsay developed symptoms consistent with a rare disease that had also afflicted his mother, a condition that had baffled doctors fo...