Hey, mom and dad are fighting listeners. It's Dan. Don't worry. We'll have a fresh episode on Thursday, but before then, I wanted to share a story I've been working on in the background for a little while.

It's an episode of Slate's Culture Documentary Podcast Decoder Ring, and it's written and reported by me.

Because before I was a writer, before I was a podcast host, before I was a dad, I was at the center of one of the

strangest and most consequential viral events of the early internet, the spectacular rise and

fall of the Segway Personal Scooter. I've been wanting to tell the story for years, and I'm

excited to share it with all of you. If you like that episode, you should subscribe to Decoder

Ring. That way you won't miss any new episodes, and you can listen to their backlog of great shows. I'm a big fan of their Cabbage Patch Kids episode from last year. There's a lot of really good stuff there about the way that we think about culture and the way that culture has changed over the years. They're decoding cultural mysteries, and it's a really terrific show. I'm excited to be part of it. All right.

On to my episode.

This is Who Killed the Segway?

I got the book proposal and just said, wow, check this out.

It had this incredible new invention that

was going to change the world. But the one thing that book proposal didn't tell you was what it was.

I seem to recall the first thing that really took off was the whole idea of a hoverboard.

It's a hovercraft. It's a spaceship. It's a jetpack. People are coming up with jet packs and, you know, inertial thrusters and imagination is just going crazy.

This was the biggest story anywhere in the world. For that time, it was insane. News cameras outside of our buildings and news trucks and reporters trying to interview you.

So when it does come out, you remember on the Good Morning America.

All right, are we ready?

Are you ready?

I'm ready.

Okay.

I think it's time.

All right.

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