Anxious Machine

Mohamed fell in love with air travel at a young age. He lived in Kuwait, but he would fly with his family back to Egypt at the end of every school year, so air travel was imbued with the pleasure of summer, vacation, family, and fun.

Then he grew up and moved to the United States, and suddenly air travel was much more expensive, much more difficult. This is the story of how his relationship to flying changed.

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Links: Louis CK on the Conan O’Brien show

Music: Halflight by Podington Bear Mensa by Podington Bear Constellation by Podington Bear Filaments by Podington Bear

Kate Hopper had dreamed of a totally natural birth, with no drugs and no medical interventions. But when her baby was born two months early, Kate had to enter the unnatural world of the neonatal intensive care unit, where incubators, tubes, and monitors kept her daughter at a distance, and where Kate had to struggle to find her own identity as a mother.

Anxious Machine on iTunes

Links:

Kate Hopper’s book about her experience: Ready for Air

Kate Hopper’s website: Motherhood and Words

Music:

Imaginary Friend by johnny_ripper

Tea Tea Tea by Chapelier Fou, remixed by johnny_ripper

In a Dream by johnny_ripper

Staircase with Felix Green by johnny_ripper

Une Belle Fin by johnny_ripper

A Song for Charlie Kaufman by johnny_ripper

Tanya grew up in a home with only one approved hour of television a week. She had no music in her bedroom, no cellphone, and no computer access, unless her mother was watching over her shoulder.

In Krystyna’s house, on the other hand, the TV was always on, and she could watch whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She now worries, as a single mother, that her children have too much access to screens, since she has very little time or energy to monitor their usage.

The two women take turns telling their stories about fighting for technological freedom, or technological control, and trying to find some kind of balance.

Music:

Back to the Start by johnny_ripper from soundtrack for a film that doesn’t exist

“Lille” by johnny_ripper from soundtrack for a film that doesn’t exist

“Gaël” by johnny_ripper from l’esprit d’escalier

A johnny_ripper remix of “Black Book” by Ori from Deximer

A johnny_ripper remix of “Enough of Our Machines” by Son Lux from Deximer

“A Void” by johnny_ripper from Epilogue

Andria Williams met her husband Dave when they were in their first year of high school. They’ve been together now for almost two decades, but they’ve also spent a significant portion of that time living apart, conducting their relationship over a long distance.

Over the course of those two decades, the technology of communication has also changed in a number of ways. Andria describes her struggle to adapt to those communication technologies, especially considering that she doesn’t even enjoy talking on the phone.

Andria runs the Military Spouse Book Review, and she has a novel forthcoming from Random House.

Scoring music in this episode came from Glass Boy.

On this episode, my guest is Stephen Hackett, who publishes the website 512 Pixels and co-hosts the podcast Connected. We talk about what it’s like to put the life of someone you love, someone you would protect with your own life, in the hands of medical experts.

Stephen has written a number of pieces on this topic over the years. These are my favorites:

Two Years

The Fifth Floor

Three

Six

Stephen also runs a fundraiser for St. Jude Research Hospital every year. The hospital not only treats children like Josiah, it also shares all the research it does with doctors around the world, and it has a policy never to deny treatment to any child on the basis of race, religion, or an inability to pay. You can donate to the hospital here.