Logistics! (the audio version)

November 17, 2021 6:37 PM

I love this question from a few days ago asking about where to read about the logistics of things! I wish I was the type of person who would read all these things, but I know I never will. I much prefer to consume via audio. Does anyone have any podcast recommendations where they touch on these sorts of topics? I'm basically asking the same question, but in audio form.

For example, I'm interested in how things get done in general, especially if it's things we take for granted that have complexity under the surface, or just random things no one really ever thinks about. Supply chain logistics are hot right now for example, but transportation, shipping, crazy build logistics, even event management - there's an entire world I haven't considered! For example from the original question - how NFL tickets are assigned to the visiting-team's families.

I do prefer podcasts (short attention span) but an amazing audiobook would also work as well.

Note that as a podcast loving person, I am already deeply familiar with the big name podcast producers, and would definitely prefer something a little more off the beaten path if you have it. I love supporting the smaller podcast producers as well (as long as they at least try to have decent audio!) If it's been in a top 10 list in iTunes, chances are I've heard it - but that said if there's a specific episode you think is worth calling out, please do!

(I know I could probably also text-to-speech the content from the original question, but as a bit of an audio snob; I can't handle more than a couple sentences of this. The technology just isn't quite there yet...)

Fill my ears with logistics please!

posted by cgg to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

99% Invisible is one of those big ones you've probably heard of, but many of its episodes might fit the bill. For example:
Shirley Cards (on how poor selection of photographic test/calibration images changed photography)
Fifty-Four Forty or Fight (on the legal/surveying/political problems with defining jurisdictional borders)
Pipe Dreams (on how toilets/sewerage systems were developed and could be improved)
posted by robcorr at 7:11 PM on November 17, 2021

As I said in the other thread, the episode of 99% Invisible on the history and apparatus of international cooperation on weather tracking and forecasting is fascinating.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:15 PM on November 17, 2021

One of my absolute favorite recent podcasts was Over The Road, a short series about truckers in the US. And while it mostly focuses on the culture of trucking (don't let that throw you off; it's fascinating and there are some very unexpected vignettes throughout), there's a lot of talk about actually doing the job of trucking from people actually doing it. There was very interesting discussion about what the mandatory move to electronic trip logs meant both for how goods are moved around and how it affects the truckers' lives.

A few years ago there was a short podcast about shipping containers called "Containers," however, I remember not making it through a single episode (and I listen to a lot of podcasts!) and really wishing it was better. Seems like such a fascinating topic, but the podcast just wasn't.

Planet Money probably scratches this itch periodically. In 2013, they made a series of 4 or 5 episodes that was all about making a t-shirt from start to finish (and they actually did make a t-shirt, documenting the journey starting from a cotton harvest, if I remember).

Timber Wars, Derailed, or Richest Hill, might also be interesting to you. Maybe Nice Try's first season, about various utopia experiments over the past couple centuries, though that's probably stretching the topic too far.
posted by msbrauer at 7:32 PM on November 17, 2021 [1 favorite]

"Containers" is an eight-part audio documentary about shipping. It's very good!
posted by wenestvedt at 3:09 AM on November 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

I can strongly recommend Omega Tau Podcast, they have an episode specifically about shipping logistics.
posted by fake at 9:26 AM on November 18, 2021 [1 favorite]

I can recommend Causality a podcast about disasters, but the host and creator John Chidgey is a chartered engineer, and goes deep on the technical details about the systems and structures that fail, and keeps a light touch on sensationalizing the events. He often describes in detail the proper functioning of large systems for industry, transportation, architecture, or scientific exploration, either in describing each event pre-accident, or as a counter example as to how things should have been done.
posted by sol at 10:50 AM on November 18, 2021