Ep 15: The Uncertainty of our legacies and duality of innovation

Join former mayor, municipal manager, professor, and consultant Alex Torpey for another special Travels with Torpey episode.

Recorded in the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area on the Utah/Wyoming border, Alex reflects on three related topics: 1) The uncertainties of the legacies we leave 2) The duality (positive and negatives) innovations like modern commercial air travel, and 3) How our perception about the scale of the world is a good example of an implicit assumption that we don’t really think about how it filters reality. 

Check out the full Travels with Torpey series, and the full podcast Rethinking with Alex Torpey, wherever you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify, Sticher, Google, etc) or at http://rethinkingwithalextorpey.com. 

To follow along the travels: http://instagram.com/alextorpey.

Further Reading/Sources: 

• One Summer by Bill Bryson
  • https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17262366-one-summer
• Spirit of St Louis Information:
  • https://virtualpilot3d.net/spirit-of-st-louis-first-transatlantic-flight-1927/
• Driving/Flying fatalities: 
  • https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-releases-2019-crash-fatality-data
  • https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/state-by-state
• Air travel numbers:
  • https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/by_the_numbers/
• Air travel’s environmental impact: 
  • https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200218-climate-change-how-to-cut-your-carbon-emissions-when-flying
  • https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/apr/06/aviation-q-and-a
  • https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/consumption/transport-and-tourism/environmental-impact-of-flying/story
  • https://www.greenchoices.org/eco-holidays/environmental-impacts
  • https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/climate/airplane-pollution-global-warming.html
  • https://www.thoughtco.com/flying-driving-which-better-for-environment-1203936
• Flying machine futures
  • https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/largest-electric-plane-yet-completed-its-first-flight-it-s-n122140
• 1918 Flu 
  • The Great Influenza – John Barry 
    • https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29036.The_Great_Influenza
  • https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html
  • https://ourworldindata.org/spanish-flu-largest-influenza-pandemic-in-history
  • https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoration/1918-pandemic-history.htm
• Sam Harris Rob Reich Discussing Threats related to Synthetic Biology 
  • https://samharris.org/podcasts/special-episode-engineering-apocalypse/