Since the wide-spread adoption of embalming in the United States, most Americans have turned the process of handling the deceased over to experts in the undertaking business. On this episode, the story of one family who decided that they wanted to be the ones to wash and prepare the body of the son and brother they’d lost.

This episode was previously aired on the podcast Neighbors, one of the podcasts in The Heard.

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Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes

Music:

Cylinder Five by Chris Zabrinskie

88 by Podington Bear

My older brother Scott lives almost completely outside the network of modern life: he has no internet, no email address, no cable TV or satellite, not even an antenna for his television. Until recently, he didn’t even have a bank account or a telephone. In this episode, I try to get to the bottom of why he hates computers, and especially the internet, even though the internet helped him solve a question he’s had since the day he was born.

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Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes

Music:

Heavy Flutter by Podington Bear

I Am Running with Temporary Success from a Monstrous Vacuum in Pursuit by Chris Zabriskie

The Sun Is Scheduled to Come Out Tomorrow by Chris Zabriskie

The House Glows with Almost No Help by Chris Zabriskie

The Theatrical Poster for Potergeist III by Podington Bear

The Dark Glow of the Mountains by Podington Bear

88 by Podington Bear

Patrons:

Special thanks to Eric Keys, Cam Hudson, Bradley Dunham, and Gordon Delp for their support of this podcast.

Humans have been reading for thousands of years, but ever since the invention of television, people have been worried that reading is in decline. The latest worry is that, even if the Internet has caused an uptick in the quantity of our reading, we're reading on screens instead of paper, and this seems to degrade the quality of our reading.

On this episode, technology writer Clive Thompson talks about the history of reading as a technology, why we’re worried about its future, and what happened when he tried to read War and Peace on his iPhone.

Support Anxious Machine on Patreon

Subscribe (or write a review) in iTunes

Links:

Clive Thompson’s essay about reading War and Peace on his iPhone

Clive Thompson’s essay about the novelty effect

Clive Thompson’s book Smarter than You Think

Hanna Rosin’s article for The Atlantic about children and screens

Amaranth Borsuk & Brad Bouse: Between Page and Screen

Music:

Curious Process by Podington Bear

Oxygen Garden by Chris Zabriskie

Deeper by Phlox.s

Rythn by Podington Bear

Mensa by Podington Bear

Steppin Intro by Podington Bear

Program Reverie by Podington Bear

Euphoric by Podington Bear

Respiration by Podington Bear

88 by Podington Bear