Flightless Bird

This week on Flightless Bird David Farrier investigates whether we have America to thank for the modern laundromat. After all, there are over 30,000 laundromats in the US - employing 39,000 people, making $5 billion in revenue each year. To help him in his investigation David meets with Brain Wallace of the Coin Laundry Association to discuss how on April 18th,1934 a Texan named CA Tannahill opened the world's first coin-operated laundromat. David then discovers how laundromats mean different things to different people in America. He then talks with Jason Sowell, who is very enthusiastic about the importance of the American laundromat and runs a non-profit called “Current Initiatives” which helps people do their washing. David also learns why Americans have a phobia of clotheslines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After two American surgeons told David he needed back surgery, he fled back to his home of New Zealand where healthcare was less scary! What he discovered in New Zealand surprised him. David calls up journalist Luke O’Neil (writer of the Welcome to Hellworld newsletter and new book A Creature Wanting Form) to chat through what he discovered: two very different medical systems with vastly different approaches. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Flightless Bird David Farrier investigates pizza, one of America’s favourite foods. He discovers that around 76,000 pizza joints bring in $44 billion dollars each year in the US - where every day 13% of the population will eat a slice of pizza. David begins his journey in Los Angeles, as Rob takes him and Monica to a fancy pop-up called “Chain”. Here, chefs riff on chain food but with their own upgraded twists - and tonight it’s Pizza Hut! Next David heads to New York to eat a variety of NY pizzas, from the cheap slices of Joe’s, to Pauly Gee’s famous Hellboy pizza. What makes a good pizza? There is no clear answer, but Farrier attempts to find out, before going to one last joint - Ops - an upmarket take on what a pizza should be. Along the way Farrier meets some of those eating the pizza - New Yorkers - who truly love their city. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Flightless Bird David Farrier investigates the incredibly American pastime of storm chasing. There are about 1200 tornados in America each year - for some, they are a source of fear and worry, but for others, they are a challenge to be bested. David travels to tornado alley, visiting Oklahoma in search of answers. There he meets storm chasers Stephanie & Justin Cox (@oklahoma_weather_couple) who talk about falling in love while chasing storms and their shared obsession with finding the next big Twister. David reads that the nearby town of Cole has recently been hit by a tornado (two, in fact) so heads off to investigate, meeting the resilient people there who talk about what it’s like to be hit by a twister. Along the way Farrier talks to storm chaser Jennifer Brindley (faceofastorm.com), and her veteran storm chasing partner Skip Talbot (www.skip.cc), who timed the birth of his children around his storm chasing sensibilities! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Flightless Bird David Farrier investigates America’s obsession with ice. From excessive ice in drinks to the joy of frozen food, Farrier finds that ice is deeply American. Meeting with Reid Mitenbuler, the author of Bourbon Empire, David discovers the story of Frederic “The Ice King” Tudor, who dug up ice from the lakes of New England and got America, and the world, hooked on ice in the 1800s. Farrier then heads to New York to meet writer and academic Heidi Julavits, who muses about the significance of ice in American culture, and tells David about her icy memories from Maine… and 2023’s Coachella. Farrier discovers how the Holiday Inn made ice machines mandatory in American hotels, before he considers the fact Americans want to cryogenically freeze themselves to live forever. There is no denying it: Americans love ice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier goes behind the scenes of the food that’s dished up to 30 million American kids at the school cafeteria. Back in New Zealand, they don't have school cafeterias, so all he knows is what he's learned from Euphoria and Saved By The Bell. In Hemet, Farrier meets Kate Kloet, assistant director of nutrition services for Hemet Unified School District. Donning a hairnet, she takes Farrier into the industrial kitchen where food is made for 23,000 kids in the area before the pair drive to a local high school to experience the cafeteria. What do the kids think of the food and what do they think of the American high school experience? Farrier goes back to school to learn all he can about the American high school cafeteria. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An update on Flightless Bird! David explains to Monica and Rob why he’s had to take flight to New Zealand. Defeated by the US healthcare system and his bad health insurance plan, David has temporarily returned to Aotearoa, New Zealand for some minor back surgery! This has disrupted the usual smooth flow of making the show, so for July and August Flightless Bird will arrive fortnightly instead of weekly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to investigate what the heck is going on with Independence Day, one of America’s 11 officially mandated holidays. What makes this day so American, and how is he meant to spend it? To learn about Independence Day the day, Farrier turns to Independence Day the movie. Farrier talks to film critic David Chen of DecodingEverything.com to find out what made this film so patriotic it was literally named after the 4th of July. Farrier then tracks down Phil Grucci, President and CEO of “Fireworks by Grucci” - America’s so-called “First Family of Fireworks”. Grucci’s company holds the Guinness World Record for the "Largest Fireworks Display" ever recorded, and he educates David about why fireworks are practically baked into the Declaration of Independence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier realizes that New Zealand doesn’t have attics or basements, so sets out to discover why so many of America’s 333 million homes do. David talks to Stephen Fox, an architectural historian and a lecturer at the Rice School of Architecture in Houston, who explains the practical reasons for these spaces, as well as why they’ve turned into habitable spaces. David then talks to filmmaker and architect Giorgio Angelini about what these spaces mean culturally to Americans, as paradoxically a place of safety and warmth but also of mystery and horror. The two of them discuss various formative experiences to be found in the attic, before David turns back to the egg episode, attempting to get closure with his best friend Rosabel following an incident where he cracked an egg over her head. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to discover why America is yet to fully embrace the electric kettle. Why does America insist on the stovetop kettle when it could be boiling its water so much faster? To find out, David talks to Bruce Richardson, a tea master who founded Elmwood Inn Fine Teas in Kentucky, and wrote a book called “The New Tea Companion.” Bruce is a man obsessed with the correct boiling point of water, whose worst enemy is the microwave. Richardson teaches David about the shady events of 1773, in which a bunch of costumed protestors threw British tea into the ocean in a case of tea treason. Could these events still be felt today in America’s rejection of the British invention of the electric kettle? Or is it a voltage issue? Tony Gebely, author of “The Philosophy of Tea: A User's Guide” has some of his own theories - theories which lead the creator of America’s premiere electric kettle brand, Fellow. Jake Miller prefers his boiling water on coffee, not tea - and he argues (somewhat in jest) that the electric kettle could have a massive impact on America’s GDP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices