Postal Codes

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt is joined by filmmaker/podcaster Justin Decloux (‘The Important Cinema Club’ podcast, ‘No Such Thing As A Bad Movie’ podcast) and comedian/podcaster Matt Kirshen (‘Probably Science’ podcast, The Jim Jefferies Show) for a look at why postal codes are secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR THE GUESTS:

• Justin Decloux’s IMDb page
• Justin Decloux on Twitter
• ‘The Important Cinema Club’ podcast
• ‘No Such Thing As A Bad Movie’ podcast
• Matt Kirshen on Twitter
• ‘Probably Science’ podcast
• Matt Kirshen at The Laugh Factory
• Matt Kirshen on The Jim Jefferies Show

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• Museum of Durham History

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• USPS Postal Facts: There are 41,692 ZIP Codes in the country.
• Postcodes turn 50! (Australia Post)
• New York Claims 3 Of Top 5 Most Interesting ZIP Codes In America (WGNA New York)
• At one point in the numbers section, Alex misspeaks and says “80885” when he means “80085”. He’s accidentally right about both numbers: neither one is a U.S. zip code.
• UnitedStatesZipCodes.org page for 58008 (Barney, ND)
• private company GreatData, claiming to have database of all Canadian postal codes
• Royal Mail Address Management Unit — 2016 statistics (archived)
• Irish War of Independence section of Encyclopedia Britannica
• This Day In History: December 6th, 1921: Irish Free State declared
• Ireland is just now getting around to introducing postal codes (Quartz)
• You can now use Eircode to find places on Google Maps (NewsTalk)
• It’s not a postcode, it’s a smart code – Eircodes to go live in spring 2015 (Silicon Republic)
• An Post confirms staff do not use Eircode system for local deliveries (The Irish Times)
• About page for what3words app — self-describes as “The simplest way to talk about location”
• The ZIP Code Turns 50 Today; Here Are 9 That Stand Out (NPR)
• Robert Moon, an Inventor of the ZIP Code, Dies at 83 (New York Times obituary)
• The ZIP code may seem benign now, but some Americans smelled a rat (The Washington Post)
• The Bounty ZIP Codes Brought America (The Atlantic)
• Undelivered: From the Great Postal Strike of 1970 to the Manufactured Crisis of the U.S. Postal Service by Philip F. Rubio
• Manic Mailman (Simpsons Wikia)
• Kirk Van Houten (Simpsons Wikia)
• A chilly reception for the postal code (CBC Archives)
• Google News archive of The Montreal Gazette, June 7th 1974
• Google News archive of The Montreal Gazette, Sept 17th 1976