The Vacuum

On this season of Nice Try, we’ve asked why we bring certain goods into our homes. What kinds of utopia they promise, and what they deliver with the latest technology. But even the most faddish of gadgets might just improve a person's life, because we can fall in love with things. Join us for the last episode of Season Two: a love story.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The bathroom is our most private room in our private homes, devoted to our most private business. And the American bathroom has long contained a stable trinity of fixtures: the toilet, bath, and sink. But is there room for another? This week, the riddle of the Western bathroom and our modern attitudes toward cleanliness—all wrapped up in the mystery of why Americans cannot seem to fully embrace the bidet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Since industrialization, we have developed a convoluted set of cultural rules and etiquette around sleep—which often run counter to our actual, biological needs for sleep. Enter the mattress: a lightning rod for sleep performance, and a tool for modern self-improvement that's as mysterious and necessary as sleep itself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fitness trends come and go. But the weight, about as low-tech and simple as it gets, is an anchor in the shifting tides of culture. As workout equipment has become canonized into the realm of home appliances, this heavy metal object aids in our dual—and sometimes conflicting—pursuit of athletics and aesthetics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Countertop kitchen appliances—cookers that range from slow to fast—promise healthier, easier, better ways to feed the body. These gadgets of convenience have raised the standards for how much variety and excitement one can reasonably expect from a meal. But what do we do with the time we've saved? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One of the most intimate, necessary, and perhaps loathed activities of the home is cleaning. Who does this work, and how good do we have to be at it? When is it okay to depend on some kind of help? A story of community, labor, and dirt—as told through the lens of the vacuum cleaner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The American dream of a suburban house with a white picket fence cordons off the home as a haven, separate from the outside world. This personal, private utopia becomes defined by who gets let in. And that is determined by a device that isn’t often thought of as technology. But it's the first thing that you touch when you enter someone else’s home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nice Try's second season, Interior, interrogates the lifestyle technologies and products that determine the ways we clean, cook, exercise, and sleep -- as we attempt to sail to the unreachable shore of a better life. Hosted by Avery Trufelman. From Curbed and the Vox Media Podcast Network. Thursdays starting October 14th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before she began writing for the New York Times, or visiting glitter factories and the Royal Wedding, Caity Weaver grew up vacationing in utopia. Specifically: Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. During a recent live event at the 92Y in New York City, Avery asked Caity to bring us back to those vacations. As a reminder that discussion about utopias - and the failures and successes inherent in them - is an ongoing one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What have all of the utopias we've covered so far had in common? They were all largely driven by the will and power of a charismatic leader - usually a man, usually white. How do you build a utopia, then, for people in society who really need it? In our season finale, we visit worlds where there are no men. In fiction, and real life. Read more about all Utopian episodes - from Jamestown to Biosphere 2 - and the books that inspired us this season here: http://bit.ly/nice-try-utopia If you're in the New York City area, see Avery discuss utopias with a very special guest at the 92 Street Y on August 6th at 7:30pm. Get your tickets now: http://bit.ly/nicetrylive Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices