Flightless Bird sees journalist David Farrier learning about what makes America special, from his unique perspective as a Kiwi accidentally marooned in the Land...
In this week’s episode, David visits the American Girl store in Los Angeles, attempting to learn what is so American about the American Girl doll. There he meets Alyson Campbell, the Senior Events and Marketing Coordinator at American Girl - who explains how the store works. He then gets Jamie Cygielman on the line, senior vice president and GM for American Girl. He discovers the doll is the invention of Pleasant T. Rowland - an American educator, writer, and philanthropist. She spent some time as a TV news reporter - anchoring KGO-TV in San Francisco from 68 to 71. By the mid 80s, Pleasant had saved over a million dollars from selling the textbooks she’d written for students - and started American Girl, hoping to teach kids about American history through the medium of 18 inch dolls. With all this in mind - David heads up to the restaurant to dine with his own American Girl doll, meeting both kids and adults who are fans.
LINKS:
Flightless Bird Live in Seattle Feb 8: https://www.stgpresents.org/events/flightless-bird/
Flightless Bird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast
Flightless Bird merch: https://www.webworm.store/merch/flightless-bird
Contact Rob and David: [email protected]
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1:10:07
Kiwis in America with Rhys Darby
"In this week’s Flightless Bird, David sits down with Rhys Darby - the New Zealander actor and comedian who’s made America his home. They talk about Darby’s breakout role in Flight of the Conchords - a show some Kiwis out of depth in America. From there, Rhys has cemented himself in what seems to be like every part of American TV and film pop culture - appearing in things like The X-Files, Bob’s Burgers and The Simpson’s - not to mention roles alongside the likes of The Rock and Jim Carrey. David and Rob also note they are doing a live show Feb 8 in Seattle at the Neptune Theatre.
Links:
Tim Batt and Guy Montgomery’s podcast The World Idea of All Time: https://www.worstideaofalltime.com/
Flightless Bird Live in Seattle: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0F006186C0D63E0E
Flightless Bird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast
Contact David and Rob: [email protected]"
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51:59
Mysterious Sound
"Today on Flightless Bird: Imagine if you have fulfilled the American dream of buying your dream home… only to find there’s a problem. A big problem. You can’t see it or taste it - but you can hear it. There’s a mysterious sound and it’s out to ruin your life. That’s what this week’s episode is about. Rob and David also look at feedback to the Death Doulas episode from a few weeks back.
Links:
Flightless Bird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast
Contact David and Rob: [email protected]
Jimmy Fallon and Jon Hamm recreated “With Arms Wide Open”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dku7mCv76cU
Susie “I threw my grandma a death part that went viral!”
Article: https://torontolife.com/life/threw-grandmother-assisted-suicide-party/
Dr’s Tweets: https://x.com/DavidJuurlink/status/1129811903776198659
UCLA's body donation program: https://www.uclahealth.org/programs/donatedbody
How the body of an Arizona great-grandmother ended up as part of a U.S. Army blast test:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-bodybrokers-industry/ "
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1:18:48
Shower Curtains & Porn Revisited
In this weeks Flightless Bird, David and Rob discuss their thanksgiving plans, before hearing from indigenous leader Crystal Echo Hawk about the true meaning behind thanksgiving in America. They then use this holiday week to give thanks for two older Flightless Bird episodes, revisiting the Shower Curtains and Porn episodes from many moons ago. David tries to get to the bottom of my America loves shower curtains so much, before visiting the set of a porn film. In the feedback section, David’s mum writes in.
Links:
Flightless Bird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast
Crystal Echo Hawk: https://illuminative.org/
Finding out whose land you’re on: www.native-land.ca
Peter Singer’s “Consider the Turkey”: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691231686/consider-the-turkey
NY TIMES: The Best Shower Curtains: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/the-best-shower-curtain/
Pornhub’s election day stats: https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2024-presidential-election
Contact David and Rob: [email protected]
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1:14:58
Death Doulas
In this week’s episode, David calls his friend Rosabel to see what she thinks about dying, and learns that Rosabel has put him in her will! Rob and David then attempt to face their own fear of death by looking at death doulas in America - a profession born in the USA in 1998, when a foundation in New York sponsored a conference on end of life care, where a Jewish professor talked about the importance of helping the “seriously ill” during the dying process. David meets several doulas, including Alua Arthur and Kathleen Hasay. David also speaks about his experience attending a death workshop, and asks Rob some questions from the Death Deck of cards - which uses humor to talk about death and dying.
Flightless Bird on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flightlessbirdpodcast
Flightless Bird t-shirts: https://www.webworm.store/merch/flightless-bird
Contact Flightless Bird: [email protected]
Alua Arthur’s Death Doula School: https://goingwithgrace.com/about/
Alua’s book Briefly Perfectly Human: https://www.aluaarthur.com/
The Death Workshop David attended: https://onedowndog.com/event/workshop-death-awareness-1024/
CA Advance Healthcare Directive: https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/Advanced-HealthCare-Directive-Form_031620.pdf
The Death Deck: https://thedeathdeck.com/
Flightless Bird sees journalist David Farrier learning about what makes America special, from his unique perspective as a Kiwi accidentally marooned in the Land of the Free. Infinitely curious but never judgmental, each week David seeks to understand what makes America so unique, strange and wonderful.