Podcast University: Bees Mite Be Saved; Facts Don't Change Minds; Predatory Towing

 Welcome to Podcast University. Take a seat, any seat, and get ready to assimilate this week's knowledge from independent podcasts around the industry.

 First, we'll start with Short Wave by NPR. On the April 7th episode, we learned about one of primary reasons for colony collapse. Remember that bees are a critical piece in our modern agricultural system. We learned that the primary mite attacking honey bees is the Varroa mite. These tiny reddish-brown parasites attach to adult bees and larvae, feeding on their fat bodies and bodily fluids, which weakens the bees and transmits lethal viruses. 

Without intervention, these mites can destroy entire colonies.

Coincidentally, the current administration thought it wise to close a bee research facility just as progress is desperately needed to find a method to restore bee colonies and protect alfalfa (which feeds livestock), almonds, melons, citrus, berries, and broccoli.

Second, in the Stories and Strategies Podcast with Doug Downs and Farzana Baduel, the April 7th show titled -- People Don’t Resist Change, They Resist Being Changed --  guest, Lord David Evans, argued the opposite. Backlash often isn’t confusion. It’s threat. 

When people feel insecure, unheard, or looked down on, they don’t lean in. They shut down. And at that moment, facts don’t persuade, values don’t inspire, and “better messaging” can make things worse.

There is a brilliant lesson here about dealing with extremist ideas and why people resist relinquishing them in face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. As Lord Evans said, paraphrasing Albert Einstein, "When the facts don't fit the story, change the facts."

Third, in a new 99% Invisible podcast, Service Request, host Delaney Hall investigates a nightmare many of us have experienced -- your vehicle getting towed. Hall looks into the practice of predatory towing in Detroit, where the laws are lax and regulators complacent. In the Motor City, certain towing companies tow vehicles from private lots such as stores, restaurants, and apartment complexes, and then charge exorbitant and arbitrary rates before people can retrieve their vehicles.

Hall speaks to a tow truck driver who explains that these companies even pay spotters who identify people parking illegally in a lot and then call the towing company and receive a cash payment or a cut of the tow charge.  

To end this, here are three facts from the No Such Thing As A Fish Podcast, which is a weekly podcast in which QI researchers Dan Schreiber, James Harkin, Anna Ptaszynski and Andrew Hunter Murray share the most bizarre, extraordinary and hilarious facts they’ve discovered over the last seven days.

Here are three of their most bizarre facts.

1. Hans Christian Andersen wrecked his friendship with Charles Dickens by staying with him three weeks longer than planned. Just for context, Airbnb wouldn't be invented for another 160 years or so.

2. In 1964, the US set off nuclear bombs under Mississippi, which explains a lot. 

3. In 1567, the man with the world’s longest-ever beard broke his neck and died after tripping over it. If he had a good injury lawyer he could have sued himself for millions.