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welcome to the conkey ride home for monday, October 4th, 2021. I'm Jackson Bird today. The sexist history of the rollerboard suitcase. Plus, the facts about Merck's new COVID-19 antiviral pill, including its connection to Thor, God of Thunder, and the return of

Nick Lutsko's absurdist Spirit Halloween music videos. Here are some of the cool things from the news today.

So you may remember over the summer when I talked about how we had electric cars all the way back in the 19th century,

and how one of the reasons we didn't end up devoting the funding to make them the practical frontrunners in the long term

was because they came to be thought of as women's cars. Basically, electric cars then, like now, had battery limitations that meant you couldn't get too

far on a single charge. They were also much easier to operate and maintain. And since women at the time

were perceived as not supposed to be traveling too far on their own anyways, the distance

restrictions weren't an issue like they were for men who needed to go off on business and adventures.

And of course, women couldn't possibly learn how to fix complicated, always breaking down

gas-powered cars, but men wanted to be able to prove their abilities. So, gas-powered cars were

for manly men, and electric cars were for women. But since hardly any women actually drove back then,

the funding needed to fix things like the battery limitations on electric cars eventually

fizzled out, and we got stuck with gas-powered cars for most of the 20th century.

Electric cars are far from the only innovation to suffer from weird ideas about machismo.

There have been countless other breakthroughs that stalled out for similar reasons,

but one I just learned about is the wheeled suitcase, or rolling luggage or roller boards,

suitcases with wheels on the bottom that you pull along, whatever you call them.

...