Friday’s e-links

Every once in a while, (and sometimes each day) I listen to a great podcast, enjoy an article, or see a good video that I want to share with you.

[spacer height=”5px”]

I like to think of them as my e-links:

Friday’s e-links (11/09):

1. Just an update today. McDonald’s might still have an impact beyond the hamburger.

(This was the original econlife post.)

Friday’s e-links (11/02):

1. Interesting to think that our transportation infrastructure involves so many of us that we have demand for flightaware.com. My daughter used flightaware to know precisely when my flight would arrive yesterday. While it is especially handy for picking someone up at the airport, you can use it to follow a flight from its start to finish.

Friday’s e-links (10/26):

1. To see how women, power, and the exclamation point are related, do take a look at this video.
2. This Econtalk podcast is a perfect (and very interesting) contemporary and historic look at socialist communities in Israel. Spotlighting the kibbutz, it conveys the allure and problems of socialism as an economic system. Listening to this podcast, I especially enjoyed my four mile walk today.

Friday’s e-links (10/19):

1. Long ago, you could buy a house from the Sears Catalogue. Sort of do-it-yourself, the house came in the mail. Even without the Sears bankruptcy temporarily dominating the financial news, I still would have recommended this 99% Invisible episode for a taste of what Sears had once been.
2. I was charmed by this story of two penguins that were in love.

Friday’s e-links (10/12):

1. With Nobel Prize winner William Nordhaus in the news, his light studies brought to mind a good read that I recommend . Not spectacular but excellent, this novel uses a mystery to show how Tesla and Edison might have intersected. (I enjoyed it and never stick with fiction that is not worth my time.)
2. Do listen to Dolly Parton singing about the 19th Amendment. One of 27 amendments in an album from More Perfect (Radio Lab), the Dolly Parton song is inspirational. Reflecting how musicians interpret the amendments to the constitution, the others vary. However, the concept is wonderful and well worth our time.

Friday’s e-links (10/05):

Today, I wanted to share several of my favorite cartoons:

1. The very best is from this French cartoonist who cleverly conveyed the tangible and intangible unpaid household work done by women. As I wrote yesterday’s blog, I remembered Emma.
2. This xkcd cartoon is a delight. It was the perfect complement to my airline blog on the fastest way to board.

Friday’s e-links (9/28):

1. As I continue listening to How I Built This, my favorite episode remains the half hour with Sara Blakely and the story of Spanx. From creating and naming her product to the clever ways she sold it (like having friends buy up all available at Neiman Marcus and then repaying them), her story is a good listen.
2.  I also recommend the Trade Talks podcast series from the Peterson Institute. The perfect source for anything on trade, it has the big picture and the good stories. Not always riveting, it is consistently interesting.
3. The one Trade Talks podcast that I will always remember involved a Delta response to a massive tariff on a Bombardier planes purchase.

Friday’s e-links (9/21):

1. My favorite podcast this week came from This American Life. I especially liked the second segment on Frank Borman (at 21 1/2 minutes). Now 90 years old, he looked back on his space flight with a wonderfully and surprisingly mellow outlook.
2. I discovered a new podcast series that is based in Australia. So far, having listened to “Hot or not: the economics of beauty” and another on the Australian view of China, I would say it was pretty good. It’s nice to hear the non-U.S. perspective.

Friday’s e-links (9/14):

1. My favorite podcast this week was from Crazy Genius, “Can We Extend Human Lifespans to 150?” Listening to the progress we have made toward living to 150, I was amazed, encouraged, and horrified. The issues are fascinating.

Friday’s e-links (9/07):

1. As a teacher, I found this article unsettling for many reasons.
2. This “shrink it and pink it” podcast was a good listen from New Hampshire Public Radio.

Friday’s e-links (8/30):

1. Looking back at our Stacy Smith post on the preponderance of white male film critics, we can look forward to Rotten Tomatoes broadening its outlook.

Friday’s e-links (8/24):

1. Among the podcast series that I listen to regularly, one of the best is 99% Invisible. Ostensibly about architecture and design, their offbeat stories are just plain interesting.
2. Rarely mentioned, The Invoice was an odd book that grabbed me. Its protagonist is a man who works part time in a video store. Unexpectedly, one day he receives an invoice from his government for millions of Swedish kronors because of 39 years of happiness. What happens after that is fascinating and even somewhat funny.

Friday’s e-links (8/17):

1. I guess it took me awhile to discover the 2011 documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi but it was wonderful.
2. I’ve also waited to see every West Wing episode (the first aired during 1999). But this summer I am really enjoying one-a-day. Then, I listen to the “West Wing Weekly” podcast where the stars, the writers and directors share background info. 
3. I also wanted to share this Revisionist History podcast episode from Malcolm Gladwell on Brown v. Topeka. Although it aired more than a year ago, and I’ve listened to many others, it stuck with me.

Friday’s e-links (8/10):

1. A kidney bean tariff story from Wisconsin.
2. One of the best non-economic podcasts I’ve recently listened to, this Rough Translation episode took me to a prison in Somalia and Anna Karenina.
3. A firm by firm plastic straw update.

Friday’s e-links (8/03):

1. Is it possible to count cats?
2. This mother duck (with 76 or so little ones) will make you smile.
3. A Moviepass update of “Those Subscriptions We Love to Buy and Barely Use“