I’ve been enjoying The Spokesmen podcast since re-discovering it this summer, but this week’s crossover episode by Off Peak about the history of roads in America is exceptionally fascinating. Seriously, go listen to it!

I thought I knew a good bit about the history of roads, but I wasn’t aware it involved mastodons or germ theory. I also loved the part where cars were called “noisy smoking stinkwagons” (also, I think that would make a great bumper sticker). It’s so interesting to see how our perception of what is “normal” and acceptable to society can be altered, especially in terms of infrastructure that we typically take for granted and tend to assume has never or hardly changed. And with all of the recent buzz about self-driving cars, it’s intriguing to think about how our relationship with public roadways could change in the next few decades.