Podcast: Play in new window
You walk down the aisle, trying not to whack anyone in the head with your carry on, dodging elbows hoisting things into the overhead locker, receiving passive aggressive glares when you pause to check your seat number.
You take your seat, mad that you got the window because you won’t be able to get out and go to the bathroom when the guy beside you falls asleep, or mad that you got the aisle because the other guy got the window.
Flying. It’s both the best and the worst. This week on All the Best we look at those things that hurtle us through the sky, make the world seem smaller and elbow rests seem like a bigger deal than they are.
We’ll ask all the big questions and planes and flying. Only we won’t ask ‘how the hell does it stay in the sky?’ We don’t want to look too closely at that.
Flight Manifest
Bart Denaro has never enjoyed flying, but this time he takes us along for the journey, longing, the whole time, for the ding that will signal the end of the flight.
Produced by Bart Denaro
The Pilot
Joe is a pilot, and here he tells his sister, Yasmin, about the different places he’s had to fly, strange cargo he’s had, and what happens in the air over the center of Australia.
Produced by Yasmin Parry
Turbulence
At any given point in time, there are over half a million people in the sky. One of those half a million was Made Stuchbery, who once caught 17 separate planes in a three week period. Airplane travel has become as common and uneventful as jumping in and out of the bath, a fact that always rings true until, occasionally, something goes wrong. Made discusses the time that she was reminded of the miracle, and sometimes the terror, that comes with the gift of flight.
Produced by Made Stuchbery
Music Credits: ‘This Time Tomorrow’ by The Kinks, ‘The Letter’ by The Box Tops, ‘Leaving on a Jetplane’ by Peter Paul and Mary
Presenters: Pip Rasmussen & Michael Brydon
Features Executive Producers: Heidi Pett & Jess O’Callaghan
Image Credit: My Daily Sublime