It's Messy In Here

thomas_tank_engine.gif is peak transit

View this email in your browser Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!! OTM Producer Jon here. This week, in honor of all the hours Americans will spend in turkey-oriented transit, we have a show for you about all things transit + media. It's been a bit of a process putting this show together, with ideas floating up and then drifting away, so I've chosen to inaugurate a new newsletter feature... ~ * ~ THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR! ~ * ~ When I first pitched the show I called it a show about trains. That didn't end up being the case — it wasn't even really the case to begin with, anywho — but I'm as obsessed now as I was then with this piece, about the oppressive undertones of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.  There's quite a bit of overlap in this subject area with the hunting grounds of the podcast 99% Invisible. They've covered so many must-know transit stories already, such as this fun episode about the perplexing case of The Great Streetcar Conspiracy. In our show, you'll hear from Judd Greenstein, the composer of an in-progress opera about two mythical figures in American transit history. His previous tunes are really good, especially this — which comes with an amazing urbanist music video.   One other note on the subject of music: I am reluctant to admit how many times I tried to shoehorn Sesame Street's subway song into this show. It's shameful, really.  I've been lurking in the Facebook group New Urbanist Memes For Transit-Oriented Teens for a while — to be honest, it's what got me thinking in a serious way about transit. We never figured out how to make radio about the meme group, but you can get a good sense for what it is from this Citylab write-up... and if you join you MUST investigate their reading list.  [meme by Jake Lukawski, via NUMTOT] Onwards. Listen To The Latest Show: Do Not Pass Go [ In Case You Missed It ] Making America Antitrust Again Since Amazon's founding in 1994, the corporation has taken over industry after industry, defining what we buy and how we buy. Stacy Mitchell is the co-director of Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Earlier this year she wrote an article for The Nation called, "Amazon doesn't just want to dominate the market — it wants to become the market." Mitchell and Brooke spoke about the history of regulation of corporate concentration and where the movement is headed. Put some ears on it.  [ Listen To This ] When Cooperation Doesn't Get You What You Want It wasn't always this way, ya know. In the second act of the latest This American Life, producer Zoe Chace makes the case that two men changed American politics for the foreseeable future. Inspired by Steve Kornacki's book The Red and the Blue, she covers the rise of Newt Gingrich and his friend, Rush Limbaugh. It's a deep dive into the revolutionary tactics used by one professiorial politician who wanted to win at any cost. Plus, there's a media angle. Listen here.  [ Podcast Extra ] The Civil War, One Day at a Time A few days following the 155th anniversary of The Gettysburg Address, we bring you a conversation with Professor Adam Goodheart. He ran The New York Times blog, Disunion, which covers the American Civil War as if it were a real-time event unfolding today. Goodheart has used Civil War Era journalism as one of his primary sources and says that sharing updates about the war gives his readers a sense of immediacy that a traditional history book can't provide. He spoke to Brooke in 2010. Check it out. [ Coming Up... ] Thanks for listening, and for reading. We love feedback, so please contact us with any questions or comments. We're busy, but we read them all, promise.    DONATE TO OTM

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