The Glaring Problem with Headlights

Decoder Ring

Slate Podcasts

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Something seems to have happened to car headlights. In the last few years, many people have become convinced that they are much brighter than they used to be—and it’s driving them to the point of rage. Headlight glare is now Americans’ number one complaint on the road. The story of how and why we got here is illuminating and confounding. It’s what happens when an incredible technological breakthrough meets market forces, regulatory failure, and human foibles. So if you feel like everyone’s driving around with their high beams on all the time, it’s not your imagination. What once seemed like an obscure technical concern has gone mainstream. But can the movement to reduce glare actually do something about the problem? In this episode, you’ll hear from Nate Rogers, who wrote about the “headlight brightness wars” for The Ringer; Daniel Stern, automotive lighting expert and editor of Driving Vision News; and Paul Gatto, moderator of r/fuckyourheadlights. This episode of Decoder Ring was written by Willa Paskin and Olivia Briley, and produced by Olivia Briley and Max Freedman. Our team also includes Katie Shepherd and supervising producer Evan Chung. Merritt Jacob is our Senior Technical Director. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at [email protected], or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281. Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's episode is sponsored by NerdWallet Smart Money podcast.
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0:13.0	And you may end up wishing you'd done more research before committing.
0:17.0	That's where NerdWallet Smart Money podcast comes in.
0:20.0	Their finance journalists break down real-world money decisions
0:23.5	from investing to home buying to credit cards with clear research-backed insights.
0:28.7	Make your next financial move with confidence.
0:31.7	Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast on your favorite podcast app.
0:36.3	And stay tuned later in the show to hear more about topics you can learn on smart money.
0:43.2	Before we begin, this episode contains adult language.
0:52.4	Nate Rogers grew up in Los Angeles, and over the years, like a proper Angelino, he spent a lot of time in cars.
0:59.6	But in the late 2010s, he started to notice something on the road that felt new and unpleasant.
1:05.3	It happens in different degrees, but the experience is having somebody's lights of their car, in an emotional sense,
1:11.8	kind of running you off the road.
1:13.9	Nate would be driving, and it would feel like the headlights of the car behind him, or the one
1:18.1	coming towards him, or the one perpendicular to him at an intersection, or blasting into his
1:23.3	eyes.
1:24.1	And the lights will be so bright that they will kind of stagger you and knock you out of your
1:30.0	senses. The first dozen, two dozen times it happened, Nate shook it off. Maybe someone had forgotten
1:35.7	their high beams were on. But it happens so much that you start to notice it and then you
1:40.0	start to fixate on it. He started to take note of the headlights he encountered, trying to clock what exactly was
	...

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