Engineering
Small Bridges
with Dan Ferro · 41 episodes
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Blue Hour
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This week: the bridge that sings
Mira Okafor spent four years listening to one footbridge. Dan asked her everything. Here is the part everyone quotes.
Listen to episode 41Dan · 00:42
So the bridge actually sings? Like, a melody?
Mira · 01:10
Not a melody. One note, a low B flat, whenever the wind comes from the north-east faster than thirty kilometres an hour.
Dan · 03:55
And people noticed before the engineers did.
Mira · 04:20
A cellist who walked her dog there every morning. She wrote to the city: your bridge is out of tune.
Dan · 12:08
Did they fix it?
Mira · 12:31
They tuned it. Four dampers, a lot of arguing, and now it hums a perfect fifth lower. People come on windy days just to listen.
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1,200 authors, one rule: be curious out loud
Engineers, bakers, astronomers and one retired lighthouse keeper. Nobody here was trained to broadcast, and that is the point.
Dan Ferro
Small Bridges
Former structural engineer. Still spends his holidays under bridges.
Aya Mori
Night Kitchen
Bakes from midnight to six and records whatever the dough teaches her.
Sam Achebe
Odd Orbits
Planetarium guide who reads old star charts for fun.
Priya Nair
Leaf Talk
Botanist with 140 plants and a name for each of them.
Jonas Berg
Two Wheels
Bike courier turned city planner, still faster than the bus.
Ravi Menon
Side B
Record collector who only plays the songs nobody asked for.
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Send a voice noteWhy do some bridges sing and others don’t?
Marta, Ghent · 0:14
Shape and wind. Episode 41, minute twelve: we tuned one.
Small Bridges
Can I bake sourdough at night without waking anyone?
Theo, Leeds · 0:09
Yes. Swap the mixer for your hands and a towel over the bowl.
Night Kitchen
What is the smallest moon we know of?
Inês, Porto · 0:11
Still argued about. Friday’s episode is the argument.
Odd Orbits
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