The official podcast of Kottke.org. In just 15 minutes, the coolest stuff that happened in the world today. Science, progress, life-hacks, memes, exciting art and hope. The antidote to depressing headlines. Smart stuff in podcast form. Cool news, as a service.
A couple of stories for the birds today. First, ravens at the Tower of London are living up to their collective name of a conspir…
The workaround the Unicode Consortium used to make sure we still get new emojis in 2021, pandemic or not. Facial hair is biologic…
Pablo Escobar’s pet hippos have multiplied and are ravaging part of Colombia’s capital. An AI that can create very impressive and…
The sixteenth-century manual on containing the spread of disease that is eerily reminiscent of current COVID guidelines. Bitcoin …
It’s time for two writers to pay up on a 25-year-old bet about whether tech would destroy civilization. Tim Berners-Lee’s new que…
What folklorists can teach us about the structure and resilience of conspiracy theories. The genome of the platypus has been sequ…
A prototype for self-repairing planetary exploration robots made of ice. The surprising history of the word “dude.” And a new Dan…
Space missions to keep your eye on in 2021. How satellites built to spy on the Soviets have helped unravel environmental mysterie…
People who are choosing to be surveilled by strangers and productivity nannies in order to stay on task while remote working. A 3…
What “time confetti” is and how to stop spreading it everywhere. A new development in the teleportation of information that means…
Why talking out loud to yourself is actually an important cognitive skill, or so I’m telling myself. A new population of blue wha…
How is it that humans figured out how to read? New cosmological findings that may finally solve the Hubble tension. And, more mon…
How your brain takes out the trash while you sleep. The English man who crossed the Alps on a space hopper. And a subreddit where…
How Star Wars toys have changed over the years and why it may not be a good thing for kids. What if there were tons of alien civi…
Host, Kottke Ride Home
Jackson Bird is a writer and internet creator dedicated to demystifying the transgender experience. A YouTube NextUp Creator and GLAAD Rising Star Digital Innovator, Jackson shares his and others’ stories on his YouTube channel, jackisnotabird, and in his debut book Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Vulture, The Advocate, and more, and his TED Talk "How to talk (and listen) to transgender people" has been viewed over one and a half million times. Jackson lives in New York City, where he hosts the daily podcast Kottke Ride Home. You can follow him online @jackisnotabird.