The Real Informant

Click here for the This American Life webcast which inspired the making of the movie The Informant

This American Life is a Chicago Public Radio broadcast hosted by Ira Glass and syndicated on NPR. On September 15, 2000, the program aired a story about an FBI anti-trust investigation of unprecedented proportions.

We hear from Kurt Eichenwald, whose book The Informant is about the price fixing conspiracy at the food company ADM, Archer Daniels Midland, and the executive who cooperated with the FBI in recording over 250 hours of secret video and audio tapes, probably the most remarkable videotapes ever made of an American company in the middle of a criminal act.

This is an amazing story for so many reasons and deserves to have been made into a movie. I just hope Soderbergh, Damon and Warner Bros. do it justice.

Click here for the This American Life webcast which inspired the making of the movie The Informant

Originally aired 09.15.2000 re-aired 09.18.2009

Could Hydrogen Fuel Cells Hit Rails Before Roads?

NPR released an interview last Labor Day weekend:

"Some advocates think hydrogen-powered railroads could jumpstart the hydrogen economy. One fuel-cell locomotive is already undergoing tests. Ira Flatow and guests discuss the possibility of using hydrogen, rather than diesel fuel or electricity, to power trains."

Guests:

Melanie Johnson, research project manager, Fuel Cell Locomotive Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, US Army Corps of Engineers, Champaign, Ill.


Alistair Miller, senior scientific associate, Office of the Principal Scientist, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, Chalk River Laboratories, Chalk River, Ontario, Canada

Robert Remick, director, Hydrogen Technologies and Systems Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO.