How Your World Works

On today’s show, we try to find out what actually happens inside a craft brewery. It’s not just brewing beer, and even when it is, that doesn’t always go smoothly—have you ever heard of a beer bomb? Three members of the New York brewing community – Matt Monahan of Other Half Brewing, Anthony Accardi of Transmitter Brewing, and Keir Hamilton of Sixpoint Brewery – come to the studio to to explain.

On today’s show, we go from exciting to concerning: First, we discuss whether the future of cars is a Lincoln Navigator with the doors of a DeLorean and the stylings of a Range Rover, or Tesla’s Model 3, which aims to be the sleek electric car of the common man. Then we talk about a movie that tries a whole new method of filmmaking. It might make you queasy, for all the wrong reasons. Finally, we make a game of finding out which countries are members of the nuclear club.

There are 121, 362 people currently on the organ transplant list and not all of them will get the organs they need in time. On this episode of How Your Word Works, we learn about a new medical procedure that can reduce organ rejection and potentially save many more of these people. Jacob Pomrenke of the Society for American Baseball Research explains what sabermetrics is and how Major League Baseball will continue to use it, and on Stupid or Amazing, we debate the future of Amazon.   

It was 40 degrees out at the start of this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The dogs prefer –10. We find out how warmer temperatures are causing mushers to try different strategies to make sure they meet the requirement of having at least six of their dogs finish the race (They start with 16). Then we learn about new technologies in the worlds of distilling and personal hygiene. One involves boiling and one involves dirt—you might be surprised which is which.   Music credits: Intro: "Toot! Toot!" by Spectre Folk (http://www.myspace.com/spectreflux) Exit: "Aurora borealis (instr.)" by Nafta (http://www.myspace.com/naftaspace)

On today's show, we talk to the guys who turn science and technology into movie magic. Then we hear from astronaut Mike Hopkins about life on the International Space Station--the little things, like chewing, swallowing, and sneezing. Finally, we tell you if auto lease swapping programs that can put you in a Bentley for the price of a Honda are stupid, or amazing."

With the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary in the books, election season is in full swing. In this week’s episode we asked professional pollster Nick Gourevitch the question on everyone’s mind in the run up to the election: Are polls all they're cracked up to be? Then an epidemiologist tells us what we need to know about the Zika virus, and what we can expect from it here in the US. Then we give you an inside look at what it takes to make convincing visual effects with the help of Jonathan Rothbart, the VFX Supervisor on the most profane and hilarious superhero movie yet, Deadpool. And finally, Brian Kelly of thepointsguy.com helps us determine if a new innovation in air travel is amazing or stupid.

On January 28, 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its mission, America changed in a profound way. The schoolchildren of America had been watching the launch with keen excitement, a schoolteacher among the crew. NASA was pursuing an ambitious launch schedule. Spaceflight was routine, regular, and something America was good at. Then came the Challenger tragedy. On this episode, we hear the voices of journalists, NASA staff, and civilians that lived through the disaster as author Margaret Lazarus Dean, an expert on the shuttle program, explains it.

In the waning days of 2015, kick your Christmas Tree to the curb and get started thinking about the new year. On today’s episode, we tell you what happens to your tree after you part with it, and suggest an unconventional choice of drink for toasting the next trip around the sun. Then we evaluate an upgrade you might consider in 2016 and decide if it’s stupid, or amazing.

On today’s show, we take a look at the craftsmanship that was required to shoot Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight in Ultra Panavision 70mm and project Star Wars: The Force Awakens in IMAX 70mm on quaint, old film. Then we decide if today’s luxury movie theater experience is stupid, or amazing.

This week on How Your World Works, New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jacobs drops by the studio to to discuss, germs, healthy living, and why he once let his son lick ice cream off the sidewalk. Plus: Dr. Christopher Mason of Weil Cornell Medical College explains whether or not you should be worried about touching the subway pole, and Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of the Epidemiology and Prevention Branch of the CDC’s Influenza Division, reminds you of the best ways to avoid the flu.

Editor Sean Manning talks with writer Elliott Woods about a cadre of Iraqi fighter pilots training in Tucson, Arizona with the 162nd Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard. The pilots are learning to fly F-16 jets, which the Iraqi government purchased from the US and is using to launch air strikes against ISIS.

In this round table episode we talk to contributing writer Kira Peikoff about her story on a new form of cancer treatment that finds promise in patients with abnormally positive responses to otherwise unsuccessful trial drugs. Then we float theories on helium, save Neil Armstrong's space suit from disintegration, and consider the merits (or folly) of The Drinking Jacket.

We investigate the spector of young girl at the Brooklyn Public library, talk to an expert in the field of ghost hunting, Dr. Karen Stollznow, the author of Haunting America; and we speak with the Visual Effects Supervisor of Ghostbusters, Richard Edlund.

In the tense and thrilling new documentary Meru (in theaters now) mountaineers Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker, and Renan Ozturk attempt to become the first group to successfully summit the Himalayas’ Meru Peak via the Shark’s Fin, one of the hardest climbs in the world. To make things even more challenging, they decided to shoot a beautiful movie as they climbed. Although your cinematic ambition may not involve hanging off a mountain 21,000 feet in the air, Chin says that many of the principles are the same. He offered the following tips.

When Andy Weir wrote The Martian, his science puzzler about an astronaut marooned on Mars with only his wits (read: scientific knowledge) to save him, he timed it to come out before the Curiosity Rover launched in 2011. So there’s no way he could have known what the world would be like in September 2015, as the release of the film adaptation is imminent. But, diving into the science behind the movie with NASA’s Dr. Jim Greene, who was a technical advisor, we discovered Mars is quite like Earth in several unexpected ways.

The NFL season kicks off this weekend, and while a lot of the focus may be on Tom Brady's revenge and Arian Foster's groin, we wanted to look at the game from a technology standpoint. As the efforts to protect players have become more and more high tech, so have other things, like the smoothies they drink after practice. We're seeing drones in training camp, quarterbacks using virtual reality, and players outfitted with everything from gyroscopes to accelerometers to GPS. Here are a few of the more interesting technologies we discovered.

In a special round table edition of the show, our editors discuss how architectural design can build better jails, and better outcomes for inmates and society. We'll consider whether a computer that costs $9 and is the size of a credit card might change the world. Then we'll unwind with a drink, and learn how bartenders are using new methods (like blow torches and centrifuges) to manipulate classic flavours. And lastly we'll play Stupid or Amazing, and put the question to a new self-editing camera called Graava.

Today on the show, in honor of the recent launch of the most advanced submarine ever built, the USS John Warner, we take a deep dive on submarines. We’ll learn a little about their history, how they work, as well as what’s new and what’s different on this modern submarine. And we’ll also answer this riddle for you, why is it that you gain weight on a submarine? Plus we’re going to take a trip to the Suez canal in Egypt. That canal just under went a massive expansion and was just opened to traffic. And we’ll play a game of Stupid or Amazing, wherein we look at a new product on the market and ask ourselves that very important and surprisingly complicated question. Today we consider a product that could actually bee really useful on a submarine come to think about it, The D-Link wi-fi-water-sensor that detects water and leaks.

Do you remember the late 90’s? During that time there were a few things that you just couldn’t escape: Celen Dion’s My Heart Will Go on was mandatorily played every 12 minutes across all stations.  There was the TMI of the Lewinski scandal. And there was this other weird thing that you couldn’t stop hearing about, El Nino.   El Nino, was—and is--- a weather pattern that forms every 2-7 years, but in 1997-98 it was having its most powerful year on record. So much so that the force of nature became a cultural one as well. Inspiring bits on SNL, and becoming the nations favorite scape-ghoat, something to blame not just bad weather on, but virtually anything from the market to a missed fly ball.  Since then El Nino has dissipated both as wheatear and as cultural icon, but this year scientists suspect that “The Boy” may could be due for a come back.   So we wanted to look at not just what El Nino was and how it worked, (What is it anyways?) but what it might mean for the areas of the country that have become defin

Whether you believe Pluto to be a planet or not, the pictures that NASA has been releasing since Wednesday are a stunning reminder that even a dwarf planet can be beautiful and awe-inspiring.  Also awe-inspiring: the work it took to get the New Horizons probe, which took the pictures, to the far reaches of our solar system—3.5 billion miles from home.  On this episode of the How Your World Works podcast, we explain how the New Horizons mission worked.  Hint: It started way before the blastoff nine years ago.   Plus, Paul Rudd becomes the first smaller than life superhero in Marvel’s newest vehicle, Ant-Man. With Rudd measuring only half an inch tall for much of the movie, a lot of visual effects and computer imaging was needed to create the film. We spoke with Ant-Man’s Visual Effects Supervisor, Jake Morrison, to learn the secrets of the Ant-Man.    Plus, are they all pipes?    This episode was sponsored by Casper.  For $50 toward any mattress purchase, visit www.casper.com/WORLD and use the promo code WORLD