PRI's The World: A Very Worthy Thanksgiving Podcast

November 26, 2008

This Thanksgiving, spare a thought for the women at right when you turn on your tap in your kitchen and drinkable water comes gushing out. Around the world, countless hours are spent finding usable water, filling containers, and then returning home. Imagine lugging a five gallon bucket on your head, sometimes over many miles, every day. One interesting idea to tackle this problem is seen in the lower half of the photo. That's the Hippo Water Roller, and it's one of the highlights in this special holiday edition of The World's Technology Podcast (WTP 221). The roller holds 24 gallons, but, because it's rolled and not carried, only feels like 22 pounds. It's an interesting design, but one that could be better. And that's where Catapult Design, an offshoot of Engineers Without Borders-USA, comes in. In a podcast exclusive interview, recorded at the Pop!Tech conference in Maine, we speak with Catapult director and founder Heather Fleming about her group's efforts to make better products for markets in the developing world.

Also in this podcast, we have news that the Brazilian government wants to use planes equipped with body heat sensors to locate indigenous tribes living in the Amazonian rain forest. Why the long-range technology tactic? The government wants to find a, literally, hands-off approach to locating these tribes. Previous on-the-ground attempts to find and protect indigenous tribes ended disastrously, with many in the tribes dying within months of first contact due to illness. We get an assessment of the program from a representative of Survival International.

We also hear about a San Francisco non-profit called Inveneo, which is taking a distinctly different approach to making computers and the Internet accessible to rural populations in the developing world. Think solar powered desktops, not little green laptops.

We end this week's podcast with a double-hit on gaming. First up, the audio version of a story I blogged about last week. It's a "serious game" called Global Conflicts: Latin America. Hear the interview with one of the game's creators, Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen.

And if you're a gamer wanting to give back this holiday season, then you'll want to listen in to our interview with the folks behind a charity called Child's Play. You can donate toys, cash and games to children's hospitals in the United States, and overseas. (Props to Seg for heads-up, and for keeping me honest).

(Top photo from Wikimedia Commons. Screengrab from Child's Play website)