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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This week’s Flightless Bird is Live From Denver! Rob and David explore the sights and sounds of Denver, CO, presenting their findings to a very fun crowd at the beautiful Cervantes Ballroom. They are joined by four guests that each bring a fascinating aspect of Denver and Colorado to life: The CEO of a cryonics company who has 250 human bodies and heads on ice, the head a hearse club, an expert from the largest Ice Core story facility on the planet, and a professor deeply involved with reintroducing gray wolves to Colorado. Musician Matthew Logan Vasquez provides live music including his rendition of the Flightless Bird themesong, and Happy Cones, founded by New Zealander Hap Cameron, delivers some hokey pokey ice cream to Rob! Thanks to our audience for their wonderful questions.

Email us with your thoughts and ideas: [email protected]
Merch & Show Info: www.flightlessbirdpod.com

ABOUT OUR LIVE GUESTS + LINKS
- James Arrowood is the CEO and President of ALCOR, a non-profit organization dedicated to cryonics here in America: They have over 1500 members, 250 who are currently frozen, waiting for science to catch up: https://www.alcor.org/
- Zachary Helm is leader of the Denver Hearse Club, and has the best haircut in the whole of Denver: https://hearseclub.com/about/about.htm
- Richard Nunn is Assistant Curator at the National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility in Lakewood, Colorado. There he oversees ice cores from places like Antarctica and Greenland, that are stored in a large freezer kept at -36 degrees. His primary job is to distribute samples of this precious ice to scientists all around the world - as they look at perfectly preserved gas bubbles trapped in the ice to find out what the heck is going on with global warming: https://icecores.org/
- Joanna Lambert is an environmental studies professor at the University of Colorado. She has been deeply involved with the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, and for some reason she agreed to come talk at a show that featured a Cryonics Expert, the leader of a hearse club and a mad scientist obsessed with ice: https://www.joannalambert.com/
- Matthew Logan Vasquez: @matthewloganvasquez
- Happy Cones Ice cream: https://happyconesco.com/

- Photography: Andrew Rowley @guacarowley

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In this week’s Flightless Bird, Rob takes David to Vons. There they each pick their five favourite American candies, ready to taste test back at the studio. They also pick a bunch of American candy David has never tried, so he can fill his blood with American sugar and become 200% more American.

Live show tickets for Chicago on July 10: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiCHI

If you want to contact Flightless Bird, we are always at: [email protected]
T-shirts are available here: flightlessbirdpod.com

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Trigger warning: Today’s episode is very much adults only.

In this week’s episode, Flightless Bird explores incarcerated firefighters, talking to former inmate Matthew Hahn who signed up to fight fires when he was serving time. Hahn brings his lived experience to this episode, talking about his time inside and his rehabilitation and road to recovery. The episode takes a turn when we discover what led Matt to this prison term - and how he got out early.

Links:
Matt can be found @hahnscratch on social media, or at www.matthewhahn.com
Live show tickets for Denver on July 3: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiDEN
Live show tickets for Chicago on July 10: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiCHI
Email us: [email protected]

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In this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob look at Subway - breaking down what America loves about the sandwich, before dining at a Subway and ordering all things footlong. Of course, they also examine the Jared Fogle disaster - and read some of the favourite listener feedback.

Email us: [email protected]

Live show tickets for Denver on July 3: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiDEN
Live show tickets for Chicago on July 10: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiCHI

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In this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob sit down to record on June 10th - a few days after David got a dose of pepper spray to the face at Sunday’s protests outside the Metropolitan Detention Centre were members of the LAPD and National Guard were posted. David and Rob discuss what the hell is going on as Trump sends 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, along with 700 marines. They talk to a former National Guard member about what they do, before David recounts his experiences Sunday near City Hall, and Monday night in Little Tokyo.

Email us feedback: [email protected]

LINKS:

Guardian opinion piece: We are witnessing the first stages of a Trump police state https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/09/trump-police-state-robert-reich

Live show tickets for Denver on July 3: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiDEN

Live show tickets for Chicago on July 10: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiCHI

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In this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob explore Scientology in LA and beyond. David goes on a mini tour of LA Scientology, attempting to visit the Museum of Psychology, Big Blue and the Celebrity Centre to varying degrees of success. He looks at how this church/cult recruits members, before meeting someone who joined and spent around $50,000 on courses before leaving. He then meets Mike Brown, someone raised in Scientology, eventually joining the Sea Org before managing to escape. He takes David through his experience and his own theories about the church today in 2025.

Email us: [email protected]
Live show tickets for Denver on July 3: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiDEN
Live show tickets for Chicago on July 10: http://bit.ly/lostkiwiCHI

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In this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob look at the USA’s very unregulated sperm doner market. Along the way David meets Sheena, who recently met her biological father and discovered over 80 half-siblings… and counting.

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This week’s Flightless Bird is live at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Musician Kelcey Ayer reimagines the FB themesong, before David and Rob share their thoughts on the city and peruse the headlines. Their special guests include Anna Lee of Lioness who has created a smart vibrator, and journalist Io Dodds who has been investigating the Zizian cult. Greg Sestero talks The Room film, and then there’s a Q&A with guests!

Contact us: [email protected]

LINKS:

- Io Dodds on the Zizians’ Trial: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/zizians-murder-trial-witness-court-b2736777.html

- Photos by Jim McCambridge

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On this week’s Flightless Bird, David and Rob look at the history and current trajectory of Topps Trading Cards. They talk baseball cards and baseball cards, before looking at all the strange trajectories this bubblegum company went in - including War trading cards, Garbage Pail Kids, and Mars Attacks! cards. They look at the most expensive cards of all time, and the act of wonderment that delving into this topic brings. Rob also calls his dad to find out about their card investment, and David talks about seeing a weird dead deer and the reaction it got from Americans.

Email us: [email protected]

Merch and links: www.flightlessbirdpod.com

Links:

- Swedish Mom Fined for Cracking Egg on Daughter’s Head: https://townflex.com/mom-fined-for-cracking-egg-on-daughters-head-in-viral-tiktok-prank

- Why Are the Menendez Brothers on a Basketball Trading Card? https://people.com/the-menendez-brothers-basketball-card-8718273

- American Pope Topps card: https://www.topps.com/products/pope-leo-xiv-2025-topps-now%C2%AE-card-pope

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