This Is How You Win the Time War
Out There
Willow Belden
4.6 • 608 Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2023
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Clock time is a human invention. So it shouldn't be a box that confines us; it should be a tool that helps us accomplish the things we care about.
But consider the system of standard time, first imposed by the railroad companies in the 1880s. It constrains people who live 1,000 miles apart—on opposite edges of their time zones—to get up and go to work or go to school at the same time, even though their local sunrise and sunset times may vary by an hour or more.
And it also consigns people who live on the eastern edges of their time zones to ludicrously early winter sunsets.
For over a century, we've been fiddling with standard time, adding complications such as Daylight Saving Time that are meant to give us a little more evening sunlight for at least part of the year.
But what if these are just palliatives for a broken system? What if it's time to reset the clock and try something completely different?
This is a guest story from the podcast Soonish, first published in 2021.
Links:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hub and spoke. Audio Collective. |
| 0:09.0 | Hi, I'm Willow Belden and you're listening to Out There, the podcast that explores big questions through intimate stories outdoors. |
| 0:24.2 | It's hard to believe, but Out There will be eight years old next week. And to celebrate, |
| 0:31.1 | we are hosting a virtual happy hour for our Patreon supporters. The happy hour will be on Friday, March 10th, and it'll be online |
| 0:39.9 | so you can join from anywhere. All our patrons are invited, so whether you've been supporting |
| 0:45.8 | the show for years or you're a brand new supporter, please join us. In case you're new to this, |
| 0:52.4 | Patreon is a crowdfunding platform for creative endeavors. |
| 0:56.8 | It lets you make monthly contributions to projects you care about, like this podcast. |
| 1:01.7 | If you're already a patron, there's nothing more you need to do. |
| 1:05.6 | Just keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation. |
| 1:08.5 | If you're not yet a patron, sign up by March 5th to get in on the fun. |
| 1:12.8 | Just click the link in the episode description or go to patreon.com slash out there podcast. |
| 1:24.6 | Today's episode is about time, how we lose it and how we gain it. |
| 1:33.4 | And that might be on your mind right now because here in the U.S., we are about to switch from standard time to daylight savings time. |
| 1:41.3 | Our clocks will spring forward by an hour, which means it'll stay light later, |
| 1:45.8 | but we also lose an hour of sleep. The story we're going to share comes from producer Wade Roush. |
| 1:53.8 | Wade is one of the founders of Hub and Spoke, which is the collective that out there joined last year. |
| 1:59.1 | And he runs a wonderful podcast called Soonish. |
| 2:03.1 | In fact, this story first aired on Soonish back in 2021. So Wade, what is Soonish all about? |
| 2:11.4 | That is a good question. You know, it's really a kind of a bucket, a container. The name is |
| 2:17.1 | really intentionally vague. |
| 2:19.3 | When people hear it, I think they think, |
... |
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