Superbowl Roundup with Ian Chillag

Superbowl Roundup with Ian Chillag

Author: The War on Cars, LLC February 10, 2026 Duration: 1:10:56

Super Bowl LX had everything, from ads for weight loss drugs and male grooming products to spots touting tax prep services and calming fears about our AI overlords. It also had one outstanding halftime performance from Bad Bunny. But what the game didn't have was a whole lot of car ads. (Or a whole lot of touchdowns, but that's a different story.) Why, after dominating the broadcast for decades, has the automobile industry gone cool on one of broadcasting's biggest nights? And what did the few cars ads that did run say about the state of the nation and American culture at this particularly fraught moment in time? Ian Chillag—creator and host of the award-winning Radiotopia podcast "Everything is Alive," the co-host of NPR's "How to Do Everything," and a senior producer of "Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me"—joins us to break it all down.

Join The War on Cars on Patreon and listen to exclusive ad-free versions of regular episodes, Patreon-only bonus content, Discord access, invitations to live events, merch discounts and free stickers!

Watch all of the Super Bowl ads. (NY Times)

Listen to Ian Chillag's podcasts How to Do Everything and Everything is Alive.

Order our new book, Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile, out now from Thesis, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Find us on tour and get tickets at lifeaftercars.com.

Thanks to Cleverhood for sponsoring this episode. Listen to this episode for the latest discount code and get the best rain gear for walking and cycling.

The War on Cars is produced with support from the Helen and William Mazer Foundation.

www.thewaroncars.org

 


Imagine a world not built around traffic jams and parking lots, but shaped for people. The War on Cars is a dispatch from the front lines of that effort, a collective conversation questioning the automobile’s dominance over our cities, our environment, and our daily lives. Each episode digs into the real-world fight to reclaim public space, examining everything from the politics of a new bike lane to the history of how cars came to rule. You’ll hear from urban planners, activists, historians, and ordinary people pushing back, offering a mix of sharp analysis, on-the-ground reporting, and compelling narratives. This isn’t just about transportation; it’s about the culture and societal choices that have led us here, and the tangible, often inspiring work to create safer, quieter, and more connected communities. Tune in for a thoughtful and necessary critique of the status quo, a podcast dedicated to the idea that our streets can-and should-be for so much more.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The War on Cars
Podcast Episodes
Vehicular Cycling and John Forester, Part 1 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:51
NOTE: This is part one of a two-part episode. To hear both parts right now and without ads, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars. "Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles." That q…
Critical Mass Nairobi with Cyprine Odada [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:17
Cyprine Odada is the Executive Director of Critical Mass Nairobi and an urban planner specializing in active mobility. Ever since founding the Kenyan capital's chapter of Critical Mass, the largest gathering of non-compe…
Killed by a Traffic Engineer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:51
Because it has the word "engineering" right in there, the field of traffic engineering is something most people assume is governed by science and rational rules. But a new book, written by a traffic engineer himself, arg…
Women's Freedom to Ride [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:28
Why don't more women ride bicycles in London? The advocacy group London Cycling Campaign wanted to know, and so they asked. What they discovered was disturbing: Among more than a thousand women surveyed, nine out of ten…
Kathy Hochul's Congestion Pricing Flip-Flop Fiasco [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:33
In this emergency episode, we discuss New York State Governor Kathy Hochul's 11th-hour decision to "indefinitely suspend" congestion pricing, the program that would have charged drivers to enter Manhattan below 60th Stre…
TEASER: The War on The War on Cars [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:42
This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars. For this month's exclusive Patreon bonus episode, we take a…
Winter Cycling in Oil Country [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:43:19
An unlikely cycling revolution is happening in one of the coldest big cities on the planet: Edmonton, Alberta. Despite freezing temps, lots of sprawl, big trucks and an economy built on pulling oil out of the Albertan ta…
When Driving Is Not an Option with Anna Zivarts [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:55
The United States has built a transportation system centered around automobiles. But one-third of the nation's population can't drive, whether because of disability, age, financial hardship, immigration status, or any of…
TEASER: Dodge's "Deeply Weird" Pitch for Electric Muscle Cars [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 7:05
***This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.*** We were getting ready to record our "Cybertrash" epis…
Tesla Cybertrash with Ed Niedermeyer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:03
Elon Musk's gigantic, stainless steel, 1980s sci fi movie–inspired Cybertruck is starting to show up on city streets. Perhaps you've had the misfortune of seeing one rolling through your neighborhood. If not, you've almo…