The Vigilante and the Air Traffic Controller

Last week, Cautionary Tales described the rise and fall of General Magic, the startup with too much money and too few constraints. Was General Magic really doomed from the start, and what does its fate tell us about AI, drug discovery and our love lives? David Epstein, author of ...  Show more

It's 1990. A new company called General Magic is going to build its vision of the future: the smart phone. They have talent, almost unlimited cash, and a 15 year head start on the iPhone. What could go wrong? This episode was based, with permission, on David Epstein's book Inside ...  Show more

Datshiane Navanayagam talks to controllers from the UAE and Sweden about guiding aeroplane take-offs and landings and dealing with the extreme stress of the job.Helena Sjöström Falk is the first woman president of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associati ...  Show more

An American surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet collide near the Chinese coast in 2001.  Smart diplomacy by a former American Navy Admiral results in the release of two dozen American airmen and women from detention in China. Today, tensions between the countries are muc ...  Show more

On May 10, 2022, Darren Harrison was one of two passengers flying home to Florida from the Bahamas. They were still over the Atlantic Ocean when the pilot suffered a medical emergency and passed out at the controls, sending the plane into a nosedive. Darren was able to pull ou ...

<span class="normaltextrun"><span style= "font-size: 10.0pt;">Episode 346 Show Notes</span></span><span class="eop"><span style= "font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span> ...