Two weeks ago Apple Pay was unveiled with great fanfare and claims that the mobile-payment system will make purchasing easier and more secure. On today’s show, a closer scan of Apple Pay to find out who is set to benefit from it.
Then, if you’re at a loss to describe something in English, why not turn to the language that brought you zeitgeist and schadenfreude? We’ll explore compound German words uniquely outfitted for life’s everyday pleasures, pains, and unnamed oddities.
Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments.
Apple Pay, Yea or Nay?
- Two weeks ago today, apple unveiled its latest creation: Apple Pay, a mobile payment system it claims will make purchasing easier and more secure. Some major retailers aren’t having it….but why? Rob Fleischman is chief technology officer at Xero-Cole, and our chief explainer of all things wired.
- Read more on the story here: Apple Pay: Yea or Nay?
Schottenfreude
Ben Schott is the best-selling author of Schott’s Original Miscellany and a contributing columnist to the op-ed page of the New York Times. Last year he completed a compendium of compounds to describe the inexpressible. It’s called Schottenfreude, German Words for the Human Condition.
Vulcanite Dentures, or When Patent Violators Strike Back
- Dentures, false teeth, whatever you call them, they’re pretty much everywhere nowadays. You can get them at the dentist’s office, purchase them online, you can even buy gag ones at the costume shop. But back in the 19th century, they were a high ticket item. Our next story investigates how a patent violator and a murder may have lead to their current low, low price.
- That story came to us from Roman Mars and you can listen to it at his website: 99% Invisible.
- We first met the procrastinating poet Paul Chowder in Nicholson Baker’s novel The Anthologist. He spoke to us last year for the release of Traveling Sprinkler. That novel, along with The Anthologist, are now out in a single paperback titled Two Novels: The Paul Chowder Chronicles.
