The Commute From Hell

Getting from one place to another is hard. What if we could just teleport? From the physics of how this would work (it wouldn’t) to the ripple effects on politics, urban development, and tourism, this episode is all about what would happen if we could zip instantly from one place to another.

Guests

• Matt Lubchansky, comic artist and associate editor at The Nib
• Zeeya Merali, physicist at the Foundational Questions Institute, author of A Big Bang in a Little Room, cohost of the FQXi Podcast
• Peter Norton, historian at the University of Virginia, author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City

(Paper from the advertisement: Time to End the Use of Genetic Test Results in Life Insurance Underwriting)

Further Reading

• The Trouble With Teleportation
• Teleportation from The Nib
• Teleporters and Quantum Entanglement from Minute Physics
• The Trouble with Transporters from CGP Grey
• Why You Don’t Want Teleportation from Because Science
• Harry Potter can apparate. Can you?
• China’s quantum satellite achieves ‘spooky action’ at record distance
• Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City
• Going Faster in the Wrong Direction? History’s Lessons for the Future of Roads and Streets
• Street Rivals: Jaywalking and the Invention of the Motor Age Street.
• Urban Sprawl and Public Health: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities
• Urban Sprawl and Public Health
• Why People Live Where They Do
• Demographic and economic trends in urban, suburban and rural communities

Flash Forward is produced by me, Rose Eveleth. The intro music is by Asura and the outtro music is by Hussalonia. The teleportation attendant from the future was played by Tamara Krinsky. Tamara is the host of the science & technology show TOMORROW’S WORLD TODAY, which you can watch on Amazon, right now. The episode art is by Matt Lubchansky.

If you want to suggest a future we should take on, send us a note on Twitter, Facebook or by email at info@flashforwardpod.com. We love hearing your ideas! And if you think you’ve spotted one of the little references I’ve hidden in the episode, email us there too. If you’re right, I’ll send you something cool.

And if you want to support the show, there are a few ways you can do that too! Head to www.flashforwardpod.com/support for more about how to give. But if that’s not in the cards for you, you can head to iTunes and leave us a nice review or just tell your friends about us. Those things really do help.

That’s all for this future, come back next time and we’ll travel to a new one.

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