This American Life: Five Ways of Mapping The World

Occasionally the PBS radio show This American Life digs up their archives to revisit an old broadcast from their 17-year history. This week’s episode (transcript) reminds us just how new our reliance on iPhones and turn-by-turn directions are. Specifically, it looks at mapping, and how e might map things with our different senses: the electronic nose that is still as expensive today as it was in 1998, lawyers who pay surveyors to map the cracks in NYC pavements so that their clients can sue for injuries, and perhaps most quaint, the people who make minimal personalised maps of their street.

Oh, that’s not how the map looks. What I did was photograph the pumpkins at the face. And then I printed them black on black, so all you see are the eyes and the mouths of the pumpkins on the black background. John Carpenter would love this image.

Listen to this episode, or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.