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Flightless Bird

Train Hopping

Flightless Bird

David Farrier

Society & Culture, Documentary, Comedy

4.93.3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2025

⏱️ 86 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this week’s Flightless Bird, David talks to a man who lived as a train hopper for two years. They talk about the lifestyle, dangers and chaos of illegally hitching rides across America using the railroad system. The country’s first train tracks were laid down in the 1820s - and since then, America has gone on to have the largest rail transport network in the world - over 136,000 miles of train lines weaning their way across the USA. Which is why train hopping is part of America’s history. Based on original reporting in Webworm: https://www.webworm.co/trainhopping/ Email us: flightlessbirdchat@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hi, David. Hi, Rosabel. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. I just got to thinking earlier on. I was wondering if you could share with me and the listeners what your first ever email address was. No, I won't be doing that, but thank you for asking.

0:23.9

I was thinking about your first email address

0:26.2

because the episode today, I think, is kind of about some deviance.

0:30.4

And I was thinking, gosh,

0:32.7

Roosevelt's first email is one of the most deviant things I've ever heard in my life.

0:36.8

Okay, I'm not going to say what the email is because it would ruin my reputation.

0:41.8

But what I will say is that, you know, sometimes people have an idea of Chinese parents.

0:49.3

My parents are Singaporean Chinese.

0:51.5

And my mom was like never like a tiger mom.

0:53.8

She's so loving and supportive.

0:55.8

And maybe like willfully, I don't want to say ignorant, but I mean, I don't know how to explain

1:02.9

this behavior that she displayed where I had a very extremely inappropriate email for a

1:10.3

13 year old. You did? You did. I might have even been 11, you know. It was, we never email started. And she just gave it to all my relatives, like all my aunties and uncles and were like, you know, here's Rosemarle's email if you need it. I'm sure she was being sweet about it. You know, maybe she just didn't even know what it meant.

1:28.6

Remarkable. I mean, for anyone listening, and I guess I can't reveal what it was, but it was just foul.

1:33.6

It was a foul email address. It was like if you used a random email generator.

1:39.1

Yeah, and plugged it into a porn site. Yeah, exactly. Like something super sexualized, also like Gothic and evil.

1:47.4

I wonder what email addresses listeners are thinking of right now. I would love to know. Maybe it can be

1:54.3

like a rumple-stiltskin show and, you know, like whoever gets it wins a prize. Now the deviancy we're talking about on the show is a bit of a leap, or a hop, you could

2:05.1

say. We're talking about train hoppers, people who illegally get drunk often and ride trains.

2:12.1

And I'm wondering if you as a devious person, Rosabel, have ever hopped a train.

2:17.0

That's like when you're jumping on the top of it, eh? You can be in it, you can be under it. It's just basically like being on there and using it to travel long distances, but not paying a ticket. You could be like under the undercarriage, you could be like in one of the engines, you could be on the roof. It's not necessarily like running up and down the top of the train being completely bonkers.

2:36.4

It's not like mission impossible.

...

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