Culture

Gangster-Magicians and 4 More Perfect Post-Thanksgiving Podcasts

Featuring George Takei, Soapy Smith, Joey One-Arm, and Joey Bad Way.
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The dishes are done, the leftovers finished: You won’t have to tune out your crazy uncle at the dinner table for a whole month! But there’s still a few cold weeks of work to go until the holiday break is truly here—or, as we prefer to think of it, until you have a few days off to watch Love Actually and Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in footie pajamas.

So, what can you listen to in the meantime? Well, we’re glad you asked! Read on for a magician who became a gangster, a felon who became a mayor, and the guy who safely removes snakes from planes. Plus, the Chinese market of a million surfing Santas, and how internment camps influenced Japanese-American food.

  • Since Donald Trump’s election, many have compared his talk of a Muslim registry to Japanese internment camps during World War II. *Fugitive Waves* features Japanese-Americans who lived in the camps—including *Star Trek'*s George Takei—talking about how internment affected and influenced the foods they grew up with: fried bologna with soy sauce and sugar, for example, or the Weenie Royale—sliced hot dogs cooked with onion and eggs, eaten with soy sauce over rice.
  • After a felony conviction, Providence mayor Buddy Cianci resigned—and then got re-elected. *Crimetown* kicks off its season examining the life of Rhode Island’s most charismatic felon-in-office with a case from 40 years ago, when Cianci first developed a reputation as an anti-corruption lawyer while prosecuting famous mob boss Raymond Patriarca. Featuring Joey One-Arm, Joey Bad Way, and all the Rhode Island accents you hoped for.
  • Whit “Pop” Haydn sits in on seances that summon Harry Houdini and teaches police how to catch con men on the street, but the magician’s best sleight-of-hand is the shell game. Go behind the fake doors at The Magic Castle, Hollywood’s private club for magicians, and learn about Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith, the crime boss who made a fortune by hiding a pea under a shell and moving it around, inventing a trick that has confounded children’s birthday party attendees for a century.
  • Thanksgiving is over, and you know what that means. Time to buy a tree and decorate it with plastic baubles. *99% Invisible* goes beyond the Walgreens aisles and dollar stores to the wholesale market where it all begins: the Futian market, or China Commodity City. At 43 million square feet—that’s 10 times the size of the Mall of America—workers there sell plastic dolls, rubber ducks, vuvuzelas by the millions, and many, many Santas: climbing out of chimneys, riding motorcycles, surfing. It’s a testament to American consumerism, 200 miles southwest of Shanghai.
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    Slack

    Work in Progress, “Untethered”

    This holiday weekend, [49 million Americans](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/nearly-49-million-americans-planning-thanksgiving-travel/2016/11/14/18ee496a-aa8a-11e6-a31b-4b6397e625d0_story.html) took to the skies. Hopefully, not one of those planes had a snake aboard. But if it did, airport wildlife managers like Rob Shevalier could save the day. Shevalier worked on airport runways, until he decided to become a falconer and save passengers from errant creatures in the air. This episode of *Work in Progress* also features Mohamed Alborno, a stateless person who plans to create a country for himself—online. [Listen here](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/6-untethered/id1161483779?i=1000378081991&mt=2).

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Charley Locke writes about growing up and growing old for publications including The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, and WIRED. ... Read More
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