Culture

Gangster-Magicians and 4 More Perfect Post-Thanksgiving Podcasts

Featuring George Takei, Soapy Smith, Joey One-Arm, and Joey Bad Way.

The dishes are done, the leftovers finished: You won’t have to tune out your crazy uncle at the dinner table for a whole month! But there’s still a few cold weeks of work to go until the holiday break is truly here—or, as we prefer to think of it, until you have a few days off to watch Love Actually and Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in footie pajamas.

So, what can you listen to in the meantime? Well, we’re glad you asked! Read on for a magician who became a gangster, a felon who became a mayor, and the guy who safely removes snakes from planes. Plus, the Chinese market of a million surfing Santas, and how internment camps influenced Japanese-American food.

  • Work in Progress, “Untethered”

    This holiday weekend, 49 million Americans took to the skies. Hopefully, not one of those planes had a snake aboard. But if it did, airport wildlife managers like Rob Shevalier could save the day. Shevalier worked on airport runways, until he decided to become a falconer and save passengers from errant creatures in the air. This episode of Work in Progress also features Mohamed Alborno, a stateless person who plans to create a country for himself—online. Listen here.

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Charley Locke is a writer for WIRED covering culture and photography. ... Read more
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