What do you call plastic shopping bags that litter the landscape? Some know them as witches’ britches or witches’ knickers. Others prefer urban tumbleweeds. In the film American Beauty, Ricky Fitts famously called them one the most beautiful things he’d ever seen. Either way, despite the effort to introduce reusable bags, the plastic variety continues to accumulate. Lori Robinson of Santa Barbara has even gone so far as to collect them from Tanzanian villages and distribute the more sustainable variety. This is part of a complete episode.
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Snaggletooth (episode #1560) 01/11/2021: Many of us struggled with the Old English poem "Beowulf" in high school. But what if you could actually hear "Beowulf" in the English of... [more]
Like a Boiled Owl (episode #1559) 12/21/2020: What's it like to hike the Pacific Crest Trail all the way from Mexico to Canada? You'll end up with sore muscles and blisters, and... [more]
Your Two Cents (episode #1558) 12/07/2020: Astronauts returning from space say they experience what's called the overview effect, a new understanding of the fragility of our planet and our need to... [more]
Sock it to Me (episode #1557) 11/16/2020: In the 15th century, the word respair meant "to have hope again." Although this word fell out of use, it's among dozens collected in a... [more]
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