Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify | RSS Feed

Should Letting Children Play Alone Outside Be a Crime?

Long gone are the days when parents would tell you to get lost until the street lights turned on at dusk. I’m not sure what caused this change. When I was growing up we were told to expect random strangers to drive up wanting to lure us until their panel van to kidnap us, so it’s not like they were really more innocent times

Parents of Gen Zers Show Up at Job Interviews With Them

It’s actually weirder than the headline would suggest, they talk about parents interjecting themselves into performance reviews and even layoffs. I couldn’t imagine doing that as a parent, or wanting that to happen as the kid

More Stories Below, but first some new content in the News Sidequest Podcast Universe…

Auditory Anthology

SCI-FI SHORT STORIES - NARRATED BY DARREN MARLAR & PRODUCED BY KEITH CONRAD

I’ve Heard That Pluto is Nice This Time of Year by Lyle Talbot - As Earth’s atmosphere runs out, Clark and Alice have minutes to choose which planet they’ll spend the rest of their lives on — but Clark’s endless second-guessing about tobacco, cave crawlers, and the size of the locals may cost them both a ticket out.

I’ve Heard That Pluto is Nice This Time of Year by Lyle Talbot Keith Conrad / Darren Marlar Episode

Substack | Listen on Apple | Listen on Spotify | Listen on Amazon | RSS Feed

Also Worth A Look…

• Dogs can tell when you’re happy, sad or frustrated, study shows - Cats can actually tell if you’re happy, sad or frustrated as well. They just don’t care

• Sitting Up Straight Could Actually Help You Make Better Decisions - So you’re saying all of my problems in life actually be traced back to bad posture?

• Rising US life expectancy isn’t what it seems - There’s a lot going on here, a lot of the rise is from the recovery from the pandemic. It’s actually barely moved compared to 2019. Plus the fact that the US is lagging behind other industrialized nations. Still, progress is progress.

• ‘Real mummy’s curse’: health warning over growing trade in mummified human remains - I certainly didn’t know there was a “Mummy trade” going on out there in the world, let alone one large enough it required safety warnings

• The Transportation Department is recruiting gamers to solve its air traffic controller shortage - I can see how there would be some crossover in skills, but that seems like an odd group to target. Also, there’s really only crossover if they’re actually good at gaming, so is there some sort of video game try out?

• Flames Shoot From Engine of American Airlines Plane that Hit Birds as It Was Taking Off - Thankfully the pilots were able to land, leaving everyone with a minor inconvenience and a great story to tell. This is probably another moment where they airline should buy everyone on the airplane a change of clothes

• Why Some People Attract More Mosquitoes Than Others - It would appear bacteria living on your skin might play a role. That sucks

• TSA pleads with travelers not to hide these live animals in electronics - “Don’t hide animals in electronic devices” is pretty solid advice in any context

• Teenage Boy Suffers Temporary Hearing Loss After Listening to Cicadas for Four Hours - He should probably just tell people he was at too many rock concerts or something

• 7UP changes its famous formula, puts lime in limelight - Who thought this was a good idea? There’s a pretty high profile example from their industry of what happens when you decide to change things up