Flightless Bird

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to understand the American airport, and what makes it tick. Why are the top seven busiest airports in the world all based in America, and what does that mean for the traveler? David sets off for the world’s third business airport - Denver - to dig into the various conspiracy theories surrounding the airport. Why does it greet passengers with a giant terrifying mustang with glowing red eyes, and did it really kill the artist who made it? David descends into the huge underground network of tunnels under the airport to find out what’s really going on there, and tries to find answers to the strange, apocalyptic artwork on display at the terminals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David sets out to understand American Network News, and the country’s obsession with rolling 24/7 news coverage. Why does the Fox News Channel average more total viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined, and how is American TV news faring in the wake of Twitter and TikTok? David talks to Stacy Scholder, a professor at the University of Southern California who teaches TV journalism. What is she teaching the next generation of TV journalists, and what was it like covering OJ Simpson’s escape on the LA freeway? He also meets Victor Vlam, a 38 year old man in the Netherlands who has the biggest collection of news theme songs on the planet. Why does he have 876 hours, 2 minutes and 52 seconds of news music? Victor explains the importance of news theme music, and what it says about the news you’re about to hear. What’s the best news theme song, and the worst? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to understand why Americans say “math”, while New Zealand - and most of the rest of the world - says “maths”. He speaks to Dean Koorey about the mysteries of language, before stumbling into the depths of math/maths and the perils of the metric system. How many ounces in a pound? How many pounds are in a stone? And why is America stuck using the imperial system when the rest of the planet loves the sensible metric system? Farrier is shocked to find that NASA once lost a space probe thanks to a metric conversion disaster, and meets with aerospace engineer Omar Abed to get to the bottom of the mess. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets to understand where the heck Halloween came from, a holiday which generates over $10 billion in retails sales in the US each year. Why does an average American spend $60 on the scary day, and is it more tied in with paganism, Christianity, or scary monsters? David meets with Regina Hansen - a writer and scholar who teaches at Boston University - to talk about why we used to carve turnips instead of pumpkins, before calling up professor of philosophy and religion Justin Sledge to talk horror movies. Finally, David decides to use the spooky season to try and communicate with a ghost that’s been waking him up every morning at 3am. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to understand why America - despite all its advancements in innovation and technology - has decided to stick with the puzzling shower curtain. Why, while countries like New Zealand embrace the shower door, is America stuck in a long-term love affair with the fabric (or sometimes plastic) mistress? David calls his old friend Harvey from the Toilets episode to discuss American showering habits, before spending the day with the self-proclaimed “Glass Queen” who spends her days removing shower curtains and replacing them with glistening shower doors. He talks to professor David Schmidt about his complex mathematical simulations of shower curtains, to discover why the shower curtain insists on sticking to your body while you shower. Maybe this is a clue to why 66% of Americans shower daily, compared with 80% of Australians… and why 10 million Americans shower once a week or less. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to understand the Amish, a group of Swiss Germans slash Alsatians that chose America as their home away from home. Why does a country that embraces fast cars, fast money, and fast food also embrace the very slow-moving Amish? David discovers why back in 2000 there were only 178,000 Amish in the US, and why that number has climbed to well over 367,000 - an increase of 106%. David sits down with Susan Trollinger, a professor from the University of Dayton, to talk about Amish tourism and culture. He also talks to Misty Griffin, who wrote a book critical of the Amish called “Tears of the Silenced” and consulted on the Peacock documentary “Sins of the Amish.” She discusses why she had a terrible time being Amish and the problems she says exist in the Amish community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier embraces the American institution of game shows. He sets out to understand how in this time of high-caliber TV, Celebrity Wheel of Fortune still manages to pull in four million ahead of shows like Dateline, Undercover Boss, and Masterchef. David joins fellow kiwi Rhys Darby as he’s invited on Celebrity Family Feud - thrilled at the idea of meeting comic, actor, author, and Emmy Award-winning talk-show host Steve Harvey. Quickly David is shocked to learn he is not only attending a taping but also going on Family Feud as part of Rhys’ Kiwi “family.” Squaring off against actor and comedian Jay Pharoah (and Jay’s actual, real family), how will Rhys Darby and David Farrier cope? Will they be crushed or come out triumphant? Who will be the best team at guessing what the average American would answer? The American team or the New Zealand imports? Be warned: This episode quite possibly makes David the most American he’s ever been. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to explore America’s adult film industry, which has its heart in California’s San Fernando Valley. In this episode Farrier heads for a mansion in the hills of Calabasas to attend an adult film shoot, hoping to understand why Americans spend an average of 9 minutes and 44 seconds on porn sites at a time. David meets a porn director also called “David” to ask why they still have all that dialogue and plot in amongst all the sex, before chatting with porn stars Hadley and Lucas about the joys, trials, and tribulations of their unique job. At the end of the day, David sits down for 45 minutes as the actors all have sex with each other and tries to come to a conclusion about what this all means. David also meets one of the (now adult) stars of the popular 90s sitcom “Boy Meets World,” to find out why Mailand Ward decided to make a late entry to the adult film industry. They discuss her new book “Rated X” and the challenges and misconceptions of the porn world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Flightless Bird, David sets out to understand America's obsession with recreational vehicles, also known as RVs. Joined by Monica and Dax, David discovers why 11.2 million American homes have an RV of some kind and why 10 million more are considering buying one within the next five years. David sits down with Monica Geraci, the official spokesperson for the American RV Industry Association, to find out some tips and tricks before descending into Griffith Park to meet an actor who lives in an RV full time. It's there he learns of a mysterious man who rents RVs out to the unhoused around Los Angeles, begging the question: is this mystery man doing them a favor or is he exploiting their situation as a kind of RV slumlord? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Flightless Bird, David descends underground into the world of preppers and bunkers, learning that 40% of Americans believe that stocking up on supplies or building an underground shelter is a better investment than saving for retirement. Joined my Monica Mouse, David discovers that humans have wanted to live underground for the last 2000 years. David interviews ethnographic researcher Bradley Garrett about the mindset of the American bunker enthusiast since Covid, and finds out why Brad was arrested on the tarmac back in 2012, spending two years marooned in the UK. David finds out about the American man who wanted to buy an nuclear bunker with 56 bedrooms, and calls up a bunker company to find out what’s in their million dollar bunker package. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices