The Wonders and Horrors of Containerized Shipping
Tuesday, March 19th, 2019 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jesse_the_kIn eight 50-minute episodes, the CONTAINERS podcast producer Alexis Madrigal explores how global transport changed from humans putting individual things in ships and airplanes to putting things into train-car size containers, which are loaded via huge cranes onto huge boats. Containerization is why cheaply-made goods have flooded the world. The series examines how this change, started almost by accident during the Vietnam war, has affected billions of people in small and large ways. The series is sponsored by Flexport, who are in the container business—and it is definitely not a puff piece.
I’m pleased that Madrigal has posted transcripts at medium.com/containers and you can listen from there or from CONTAINERS’ audio on Soundcloud
Containerization is why my supermarket stocks frozen, peeled and boiled Vietnamese soybeans, even though I live in Wisconsin, a soybean producing state. Alexis Madrigal (a writer for The Atlantic) asks what happens to the dock workers and the handful of sailors who move these huge container ships around the globe. He tells how Oakland residents fought back against the concentration of diesel fumes from the new container ports where thousands of trucks idle daily.
This is a story about heroes in West Oakland like Margaret Gordon. This is a story about people who stood up and said, “No, not on my watch.” This is not a story about the health department. And this is not a story even about the port. This is a story about people coming together to fight for justice. And they won. And they won big. And they won in a way that had influence on what’s happening in ports all over this country. And in fact ports all around the world. I think those are the true heroes, the Margaret Gordons … They drove this change and they deserve the credit.
The series digs in to the origins and beginnings of containerized shipping.
For a beautiful and informative demonstration of containerized shipping 2012, visit ShipMap.org. There’s an autoplay audio overview, and an animated interactive map showing all the container ships on the planet and what they’re carrying.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-03-20 12:51 am (UTC)Thank you; transcripts are much more useful to me than podcasts, even when podcasts contain information I want.
Me as well!
Date: 2019-03-20 05:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-03-20 02:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-03-20 05:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-03-20 07:31 am (UTC)ETA: But noooo, it's not possible to download them, only stream. This pretty much guarantees that I will not listen to them, because I listen on an mp3-player that does not have internet. Whyyyyy do people do this?
You CAN download podcasts from iTunes to a computer
Date: 2019-03-20 04:33 pm (UTC)Almost every podcast in the world is listed "on the iTunes store" because Apple invented the *term* if not the technology. Most podcasts are free. The iTunes store also sells download & streaming music, movies, tv, and audiobooks.
But to get there you must use iTunes, which is the most confusing program ever. It's a free desktop application (Windows XP and up, Mac, Linux via Wine) which lets you search the Apple servers, download and play podcasts (among many other things).
https://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
(no subject)
Date: 2019-03-20 09:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-03-20 05:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-03-21 01:20 am (UTC)A big newspaper like Slate has no excuse!
(no subject)
Date: 2019-03-21 04:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2019-04-18 07:09 pm (UTC)