In this week’s episode David and Rob look at the world of Christian Contemporary Music, or CCM for short. Born out of the 1960s Jesus Movement, CCM was a way for kids to listen to “cool” music without any of the sin, and it became embedded in large parts of American culture. They’re joined in the studio by Underoath’s Aaron Gillespie who knows a thing or two about Christian music - and they talk about everything from Hell Houses to the good and bad of Christian music.
Aaron Gillespie: https://www.instagram.com/aaronrgillespie/
Underoath: https://www.instagram.com/underoathband/
Flightless Bird merch: https://www.flightlessbirdpod.com
Email Rob and David: [email protected]

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In this week’s Flightless Bird, Rob takes David to his first ever Chipotle Mexican Grill experience, before teaching him about what makes this American food chain so iconic, important and delicious. Founded on July 13, 1993, we learn about its history with McDonalds to its attempt at being sustainable, they try to answer the eternal question: Is Chipotle better than fast food or slightly better than fast food?

Flightless Bird merch: https://www.flightlessbirdpod.com/

Email Rob and David: [email protected]

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In this week’s episode, David flies to Washington, DC to meet with Kala - AKA “Tunnel Girl” - a woman digging a tunnel under her suburban home. David descends into Kala’s tunnel, trying to figure out what motivates her to do this. Along the way they talk about her fame on TikTok, the controversies she’s faced, and what you can learn from a tunnel fire.

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In this week’s Flightless Bird, David looks back at Invisible Children’s “Kony 2012” documentary through the eyes of Lilly, an intern at the time - and Jedidiah Jenkins, the director of idea development for Invisible Children in 2012. Lilly and Jed take David inside the viral hit - the first ever video to reach 1 million likes on YouTube, the speediest ever to reach 100 million views. A Pew Research poll at the time indicated more than half of young adult Americans had heard about Kony 2012 in the days following its release. The purpose of Kony 2012 was to make Warlord Joseph Kony “famous”, and raise money for Invisible Children’s cause. And then everything went wrong.
Contact David and Rob: [email protected]
FB Merch: www.flightlessbirdpod.com

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In this week’s Flightless Bird, David Farrier meets Mike Masnick, the journalist and entrepreneur who came up with the term “The Streisand Effect” 20 years ago. The term has its origins in Barbara Streisland suing someone for $50 million for daring to take a photo of her house - only to have the photo spread to millions of people. Since then the Streisand Effect has been used to describe the effect of the rich and powerful trying to shut down information. Farrier and Mike discuss the legacy of what Barbara did, and its effects on the internet today.

LINKS:

David Farrier’s Webworm newsletter: www.webworm.co - please support it!

TechDirt, Mike’s site: www.techdirt.com

Kenneth Adelman’s site: californiacoastline.org

Lawsuit details: https://www.californiacoastline.org/streisand/lawsuit.html

Contact Flightless Bird: [email protected]

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In this week's Flightless Bird, David Farrier explores cryonics - freezing human corpses in the hope they may one day be resurrected by future humans! We interview James Arrowood, CEO of Alcor, America’s biggest cryonics outfit, to talk about the perception of this practice and what it means for Alcor’s 250 bodies on ice.

Email us your feedback: [email protected]

Links

- Death To Dust: What Happens To Dead Bodies? http://www.galenpress.com/extras/extra32.htm

- Melbourne Woman On Ice: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-16/second-person-cryogenically-frozen-southern-cryonics/105517102

- A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/03/13/144721/a-startup-is-pitching-a-mind-uploading-service-that-is-100-percent-fatal/

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In this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob discuss Pokemon Trading Cards. They’re joined in the studio by Alex (@chantastic_collection) to get schooled on Pokemon fandom and trading cards (David and Rob open their first deck ever!), before David heads to New York to meet Dave Suchmann, a man who’s combined his love of Pokemon with his computer savvy to try and make a sustainable business trading Pokemon cards. Now of course Pokemon comes from Japan, but when it was introduced to America, and then the world between 1998 and 2000, it went ballistic. It’s generally agreed upon that Pokémon is the world's highest-grossing media franchise ever - leaving Marvel and Disney stuff in its wake. So, strap in and prepare to Catch ‘Em All!

Links:

- David Farrier’s Webworm update on Fake Seizure Guy: https://www.webworm.co/p/fakeseizureguysentenced

- Dave’s Galactic Collectables: https://www.instagram.com/galactictcg/ & https://linktr.ee/galacticcollectibles

- Alex’s Pokemon Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chantastic_collection

Email Flightless Bird with your feedback: [email protected]

Flightless Bird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast

Flightless Bird merch and links: https://www.flightlessbirdpod.com/

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In this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob talk about one of the most iconic American movies of all time: Home Alone. David then meets Lauren, who not only loves Home Alone - but grew up in the Home Alone house. She was there during the entire shoot, observing the whole thing through the eyes of a six year old. This episode is part of Flightless Bird’s very unofficial “Chicago Week."

LINKS:

- Flightless Bird presents: METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER. Saturday August 23 in Los Angeles: https://www.americancinematheque.com/now-showing/flightless-bird-presents-metallica-some-kind-of-monster-8-23-25/

- If have any feedback we are always [email protected]

- You can get t-shirts at www.flightlessbirdpod.com

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In this week’s episode, Rob takes David around Chicago visiting some of his favourite deep dish pizza spots. The pair check out Pizano’s, Pequod’s, Lou Malnati's and Chicago's Pizza. They also stop by Goose Island so David can try Rob’s old favourite beer.

Contact us anytime with your ideas and feedback: [email protected]

- Pizano’s Pizza: https://www.pizanoschicago.com

- Pequod’s Pizza: https://pequodspizza.com

- Lou Malnati's: https://www.loumalnatis.com

- Chicago's Pizza: https://chicagos-pizza.com

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This week’s episode was recorded live in Chicago, where Rob and David brought Flightless Bird to Park West on July 10. They share their thoughts and feelings about Chicago, before interviewing legendary documentary maker Joe Berlinger about his work. Berlinger talks about recently EP’ing a doc about the “tylenol murders” that took place in Chicago in 1982. They then talk about some of the films he’s directed, including Brother’s Keeper, the Paradise Lost trilogy, and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. They then chat about the Dahmer Tapes and his narrative film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile - and his upcoming series The Son of Sam Tapes. Next the Flightless Bird stage is taken by sandwich chef Jeff Mauro who feeds David some unique Chicago food, and then Nina Salem of the Insect Asylum presents Rob and David with a live opossum. Musical guests for this episode are the wonderful drmanhattan.

All feedback: [email protected]

T-shirts and other show info: www.flightlessbirdpod.com

THANKS TO:

- Joe Berlinger is a documentary filmmaker and producer. Director of such films as Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and Extremely Wicked. @joeberlingerfilms

- Jeff Mauro is the co-host of the Food Network series The Kitchen, host of Sandwich King, $24 in 24, and the Come On Over podcast, CEO & Founder of @MauroProvisions @jeffmauro

- Nina Salem of the Insect Asylum @theinsectasylum

- Music by drmanhattan @drmanhattanboots

- Photos by Lenny Gilmore @lennygilmore

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