The Interstate Highway System

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians/podcasters Katie Hannigan (‘Lady Journey’ podcast, new special ‘Feeling of Emptiness’) and Conor Lastowka (‘372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back’ podcast, writer/producer for Rifftrax) for a look at why the Interstate Highway System is secretly incredibly fascinating.

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

LINKS FOR THE GUESTS:

• Feeling Of Emptiness by Katie Hannigan
• ‘Lady Journey’ podcast
• Katie Hannigan on Twitter
• Conor Lastowka on Twitter
• ‘372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back’ podcast
• Rifftrax — and catch their next live show August 18th!
• The Pole Vault Championship Of The Entire Universe by Conor Lastowka (Audible)

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• Mapping Manahatta: 10 Lenape sites in New York City (6sqft)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• 7 of the Longest U.S. Interstates That Are Worth the Road Trip (Popular Mechanics)
• The Story of the Pan-American Highway (University of Central Florida Pegasus Magazine)
• Road Fever by Tim Cahill — this is the Pan-American Highway travelogue Alex references, where the person doing it pretended to be Canadian.
• Fast Facts: The 47,000-Plus-Mile U.S. Interstate System (Car And Driver)
• Decode the interstates: What highway numbers actually mean (Greater Greater Washington)
• “The Interstate’s Forgotten Code” by CGP Grey (YouTube)
• This is a rough Google Maps version of a trip across all of Interstate 90. As of taping Google Maps says it would take 46 hours, without traffic. If you add traffic, and also trade off with a partner to maximize driving days, but also stop for sleep, that trip would probably take about 4 days.
• Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Hawaii (Time Magazine)
• How Does Hawaii Have Interstate Highways? (Mental Floss)
• U.S. Department Of Transportation — Federal Highway Administration — “Miscellaneous Interstate Facts”
• The Struggles of The Fastest Highway in America (Texas Monthly)
• 80 mph Speed Limit Becomes Official Along I-80 (Reno 2 News)
• National Park Service website resources about The National Road
• Washington as Public Land Surveyor: Washington created surveys and maps from his boyhood through the French and Indian Wars. (The Library Of Congress)
• March 3, 1817: James Madison Veto Message on the Internal Improvements Bill (UVA Miller Center)
• Highway Men: The Rivalrous “Road Boosters” Who Capitalized On Early Motorways (99% Invisible website article by Kurt Kohlstedt)
• Route 66: The Mother Road (National Geographic)
• National Park Service website for Route 66, featuring National Historic Sites on the old route

Screencaps from CGP Grey’s video, laying out the east-west and north-south major U.S. interstates:

Route of the old “Cumberland Road”/”National Road”: