TEASER: Delivering the Goods with Shawon and Fokhrul

The War on Cars

The War on Cars, LLC

Cars, Society & Culture, Culture, Bicycling, Politics, Urbanism, Walking, Transportation, Cities, Transit, News Commentary, News

4.9 • 937 Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2024

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is a preview of a special bonus episode for Patreon supporters of The War on Cars!

In the last episode of the podcast we spent some time with Baruch, Shawon, and their battery-swapping startup company, PopWheels. When I started working on that episode, I figured I was going to learn a lot about e-bikes, batteries, and the delivery app business. And I did. But over the course of more than a half dozen interviews and conversations between May and December 2023, I also learned a lot about Bangladeshi politics, immigration, and life in New York City as an e-bike delivery worker.

One of my favorite interviews for this episode took place on a crisp, sunny, Tuesday morning last October. I biked out to East New York, Brooklyn to meet Shawon and his friend Fokhrul, a Bangladeshi delivery worker who uses PopWheels battery-swapping network. (Shawon and Fokhrul asked me not to use their last names because they have asylum-seeker cases working their way through the legal system). We found a park bench and spent the morning talking about the political oppression they faced in Bangladesh, their arduous, months-long journey to the United States, and what their lives are like here in New York City. It was super interesting and I enjoyed it a lot. But, as often happens with these things, only tiny bits of this conversation made it into Episode 118. So, for this special bonus episode I wanted to share more of my interview with Shawon and Fokhrul with you. I also had some fun additional bits and pieces of tape with Baruch that never made it into the last episode. So, you'll find some of that woven in here too. I hope you enjoy hanging with Shawon, Fokhrul and Baruch as much as I did.

You can join us as a Patreon supporter to listen to the whole thing.

-- Aaron

Transcript

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0:00.0	It always calls me when I see these SUVs, you know, that they tricked out to make them look like rough, you know, like these these with these monster rough rotors.
0:08.1	I'm like, these are you're like a boosy dude with some some going through some sort of
0:14.1	of some off-road crap these guys are like real real real deal you know they walk
0:18.9	through the jungle they ride in the city they're like for me they're
0:22.2	inspirational figures.
0:24.0	Hello and welcome to the war on cars. I'm Aaron Naprastack here with a sample of a special
0:36.7	bonus episode for our Patreon subscribers. If you are not yet a subscriber just head over to the War on Cars.org,
0:44.8	click support us and join today.
0:47.2	For just $3 per month, you'll get access to this and dozens of other great bonus episodes.
0:53.7	Plus we'll send you some stickers.
0:55.7	You depend on your support and really appreciate it.
0:58.7	In the last episode of the podcast we spent some time with Burrough Hertzfeld,
1:06.7	Chawan, and their battery swapping startup company pop wheels.
1:11.2	That episode came out of over a half dozen interviews and
1:15.8	conversations that I conducted between May and December of last year and
1:19.4	there was just a lot of tape that I wasn't really able to use.
1:24.6	So in this bonus, you're gonna hear some more great bits and pieces from Baruch.
1:29.2	But most of what you're about to hear is a conversation that I had with Chawan and his friend
1:35.6	Fakrull, who is a Bangladeshi e-bike delivery worker who also uses Pop Wheels battery swapping system.
1:44.0	And one morning last October, I biked out to East New York, Brooklyn.
1:48.0	That's the neighborhood where Focruil and Chawan both live.
1:52.0	We found a bench in a local park and we talked for a while
	...

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