Electric Kettles

Flightless Bird

David Farrier

Society & Culture, Documentary, Comedy

4.9 • 3.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on Flightless Bird, David Farrier sets out to discover why America is yet to fully embrace the electric kettle. Why does America insist on the stovetop kettle when it could be boiling its water so much faster? To find out, David talks to Bruce Richardson, a tea master who founded Elmwood Inn Fine Teas in Kentucky, and wrote a book called “The New Tea Companion.” Bruce is a man obsessed with the correct boiling point of water, whose worst enemy is the microwave. Richardson teaches David about the shady events of 1773, in which a bunch of costumed protestors threw British tea into the ocean in a case of tea treason. Could these events still be felt today in America’s rejection of the British invention of the electric kettle? Or is it a voltage issue? Tony Gebely, author of “The Philosophy of Tea: A User's Guide” has some of his own theories - theories which lead the creator of America’s premiere electric kettle brand, Fellow. Jake Miller prefers his boiling water on coffee, not tea - and he argues (somewhat in jest) that the electric kettle could have a massive impact on America’s GDP. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm David Farrier and New Zealand are accidentally marooned in America and I want to figure out what makes this country tick.
0:07.0	Now one of the joys of living in America is getting used to all the things you do slightly differently.
0:12.0	So far in flightless bird I've learned about the importance of tipping,
0:15.7	using a leaf blower, getting circumcised and enjoying baseball.
0:20.0	All things that never entered my life back in New Zealand.
0:23.2	It can be disorientating to encounter so many new ways to do things.
0:27.9	Even the simplest of things can be different,
0:30.3	like boiling some hot water.
0:36.0	Here in America, it starts slowly and quietly. A hot stove heating the water inside a kettle
0:40.0	until it finally unleashes its ear piercing scream.
0:45.0	Since I've been here, I've discovered that America loves keeping it traditional when it comes to boiling water,
0:51.0	placing a kettle over the embrace of a hot flame.
0:54.8	How do I feel about this?
0:56.8	To be honest, I feel a bit like that kettle.
0:59.8	A scream building in my throat until it finally unleashes in all outrage.
1:05.0	Why?
1:06.0	Because in New Zealand we have the electric kettle, sitting on the bench top,
1:11.0	it boils our water in a matter of minutes, and instead of the ear-piercing
1:15.2	scream announcing boiling point, the electric kettle just turns itself off.
1:20.1	We love it so much in New Zealand, we have a pet name for it, the jug, as in,
1:24.8	can you put the jug on please? I'd love a cup of tea. I want to know why America,
1:30.2	a country that loves things faster, bigger and better, has been so reluctant to adopt the electric kettle,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from David Farrier, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of David Farrier and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.