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A recent podcast from 99% invisible nudged me to get Nate DiMeo’s book - The Memory Palace. I’ve always loved the Memory Palace podcast. Super intrigued to see how Nate carries over the suspense in written form. 🔗

Super interesting how so many things unrelated connect in weird ways!

Overheard at NatGeo recently produced a great podcast on Orcas and I learnt about Tonic Immobility. Shasta was watching Octonauts and guess which episode she ends up watching? - The one in which they talk about TI. Now that’s some coincidence!

Another brilliant piece from Nate DiMeo. Close to 70 years now and sadly there’s still so much to fight for to get to a level field!

Another good one from radiolab! Real-life prisoner’s dilemma situation playing out in WW1.

I’ve always been fascinated by water and the raw power that nature subtly dissolves in it. Having recently procured a Kayak and with plans to use it to the most this summer, this brilliant short from the Dirtbag Diaries couldn’t be more timely! Podcast: The Dirtbag Diaries: The Shorts–The Drowning Machine “I was disoriented beneath the cold water. I kicked toward the surface, but the force of the water held me down. I twisted and hung underwater for a moment. A thought passed through my head–this is what it feels like to drown,” writes Dan Gingold. Dan and three friends planned to raft the Musconetcong River into the larfer Delaware River over three days. With the river running high with spring rains and little prior recon, their mellow trip became more than they bargained for as they navigated multiple dams. ...

A few weeks back I heard Outside/In’s Powerline podcast - A four part series on Hydro-Quebec and the Northern Pass. For the longest time I’ve only heard all good about Hydro electricity. This series helped dissect the effects of such projects through various angles and brought up some pretty interesting facts. One of those must-listen-to series… Today while catching-up on some Nautil.us reading I came across this wonderful post on the removal of the Elwha dam. Supremely surprised and intrigued! Thinking about it, I’ve never heard or imagined a dam being brought down intentionally. I’ve always thought, once something huge is built, it lasts for a long long time until it sees its natural end…the push to bring it down would be so miniscule. The podcast series and this article in tandem build a strong case on the converse. That said, Can only imagine the insane amount of effort that would have gone into seeing this to fruition! ...

Commerce clause, the 14th amendment and quite some over-reach… Podcast: More Perfect - One Nation, Under Money An unassuming string of 16 words tucked into the Constitution grants Congress extensive power to make laws that impact the entire nation. The Commerce Clause has allowed Congress to intervene in all kinds of situations — from penalizing one man for growing too much wheat on his farm, to enforcing the end of racial segregation nationwide. That is, if the federal government can make an economic case for it. This seemingly all-powerful tool has the potential to unite the 50 states into one nation and protect the civil liberties of all. But it also challenges us to consider: when we make everything about money, what does it cost us? ...

During times when we’re so focused on building walls and closing ourselves out, It doesn’t take much to bring all hell down. Even Unknowingly! Oh, Humans! Adding Eric Schlosser’s Command and Control to my reading list. Podcast: Human Error in Volatile Situations In 1980, deep in a nuclear missile silo in Arkansas, a simple human error nearly caused the destruction of a giant portion of the Midwest… Srikanth Perinkulam

Racing 750miles from Washington to Alaska … on a paddle board! Podcast: Over the Line “It’s like the Iditarod with a chance of drowning,” says Jake Beatty, one of the organizers of the Race to Alaska. The course traces 750-miles of Alaska’s Inside Passage through complicated currents, busy shipping channels and bear-ridden coastlines. Srikanth Perinkulam