The Welcome to episode 42 of the Charles CW Cook podcast, this time released on a Tuesday, except in

Nebraska where it's available only on Wednesdays or in any jurisdiction where

podcasts are prohibited by law where it will be available on Saturday afternoon if you're

on the gold plan and on Sunday morning if you're not.

As always nothing in this podcast should be taken to limit or exclude your liability

for death or personal injury, see Luther Abel for details.

On today's show, I'll be talking to Douglas Brunt about his fascinating book,

The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel,

which in a peculiar twist is about the Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel.

First though, I'm going to do a quick Q and A.

Question.

With the rugby... Question.

With the Rugby World Cup starting this week, what are your thoughts on the sport?

Do you still enjoy it now that you've become a football fan. What do you think of the tension

within the sport between its traditions and the need to grow and make the sport popular and profitable?

Rugby has also had a class dynamic in both the UK and US where it was mostly enjoyed

and played by middle class school students colleges in the US. Is it possible to make it more egalitarian like soccer without watering down the purity of the game?

So I have a strange relationship with rugby because it was the main sport that I played at school,

starting at six years old and I was thrown directly into the deep end in a somewhat

regrettable way. I can remember it as if it were yesterday. It was November, December.

It was absolutely freezing outside. I was in shorts, rugby boots, and this completely inadequate

against the cold reversible rugby shirt, one side of which was white, one side of which was purple.

...