What I Learned From Podcasts This Week: Ketchup; Do Less: Malls

 Another week, and I've been fortunate enough to accrue more knowledge from the podcasts I listened to while doing everything from pulling weeds that threaten my lawn, hunting down spotted lanternflys, and cleaning the garage and finding mouse carcasses behind the recycling container. 

This week, I'll focus on episodes on Gastropod. Hidden Brain, and Decoder Ring. 

 Ketchup Knowledge

Gastropod:  In the July 19th episode: How Ketchup Got Thick, the food-obsessed hosts discussed a uniquely American comfort condiment -- Ketchup. What I learned is that ketchup has its origins in a much funkier food: fermented fish sauce, which had its roots in Southeast Asian cuisine. Ketchup comes from the Hokkien Chinese word, kê-tsiap. 

 In fact, the Roman Empire supported a sophisticated network for this fermented fish sauce for centuries. The tomato-based ketchup we all know didn't come about until the 18th century.

What I remembered is the 1981 ketchup scandal that shook the Reagan White House when the "Gipper's" administration tried to classify ketchup as a vegetable. Nice try, Ronnie.

FYI: There are not 57 varieties of Heinz's ketchup. Heinz thought "5" was a lucky number and Heinz's wife thought "7" was a lucky number, so it was added to the label as a marketing ploy.  

Less Is More

Hidden Brain: In the June 6th episode called, "Do Less" host Shankar Vedantam talks to engineer Leidy Klotsz about a novel, counterintuitive idea: do less, not more to improve your life, your business, and your world.

The episode notes explain, "The human drive to invent new things has led to path-breaking achievements in medicine, science and society. But our desire for innovation can keep us from seeing one of the most powerful paths to progress: subtraction. Engineer Leidy Klotz says, 'sometimes the best way forward involves removing, streamlining and simplifying things.'"

In the episode, Vedantam transports us to a corporate brainstorming session where overzealous and eager-to-please execs eject hundreds of ideas on new projects for the company to pursue. No one considers, however, that a more productive and fiscally responsible solution could be to do less -- cut unproductive projects and remove processes that increase cost and decrease flexibility. 

What I learned from this episode is simple but difficult to embrace. Sometimes to make things better, you have to eliminate things you are doing that are ineffective. That's extremely difficult for people or organizations to do. Processes seem to gain a life of their own. 

Mall Rats

Decoder Ring: In the July 26th episode, host Willa Paskin interviews Alexandra Lange, the author of the new book, Meet Me at the Fountain An Inside History of the Mall. 

From Lange, I learned a lot about the genesis of shopping malls. First, Austrian architect Victor Gruen, who narrowly escaped the Nazis in 1938, designed the original concept for the mall. 

I learned that the common and confusing naming convention for malls, in which they are titled based on their orientation to a city’s downtown. I always wondered why malls were often named Eastlake or Northpoint. It's their compass point in relation to the city's downtown area. 

Author Lange also pointed out the social aspects of the mall. Since suburbs were designed without common areas for social interaction, the shopping mall filled that void. So many 80s movies from Mall Rats to Fast Times At Ridgemont High captured the social and interpersonal hives buzzing around these enclosed consumerist behemoths. 

I also learned that malls existed for about 20 years before someone came up with the idea of a food court in the mid-1970s. What? No Auntie Anne's? No Sbarro? 

Finally, I learned that the funeral service planned for shopping mall by the media is on definite hold. Lange asserts with evidence that even though some malls have closed and others struggled, many still thrive. These malls are adding entertainment options to attract shoppers in the future.  

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Finally, the July 18th episode of The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos released an episode that asked a question so many have pondered. "Can You Be Happy Alone?"

Photo by Sound On