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.

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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
The Texas Freeway Fight with Megan Kimble [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:14
In the 20th century, planners and policymakers smashed Interstate highways through the middle of every major city in the United States. In the 21st century, we understand the many ways that urban freeways were economic,…
Car Insurance is Too Cheap [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:01
It has never been more expensive to insure a car in the United States. Today, the average annual premium for full coverage is more than $2,500, up from more than $1,700 just a few years ago. There are a lot of reasons fo…
Live from New York with Bernie Wagenblast [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:35
In January, we held our third annual live show at Caveat on Manhattan's Lower East Side. We were so thrilled to be in the same room as so many listeners and friends of the podcast. We were also happy to welcome Bernie Wa…
TEASER: Super Bowl Extra [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:00
***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.*** In this bonus episode, we continue the conversation w…
Super Bowl LVIII Roundup [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:02
In what's become an annual tradition, we take a critical look at the car ads that aired during the Super Bowl and consider what they say about driving, culture, consumerism, and the United States… which is all the same t…
Should SUV Ads Be Banned? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:03
Did you ever see a car advertisement that you thought was so ridiculously irresponsible it should be banned? Well, the people at Adfree Cities, an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom, did, and they decided to do s…
TEASER: Delivering the Goods with Shawon and Fokhrul [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:42
This is a preview of a special bonus episode for Patreon supporters of The War on Cars! In the last episode of the podcast we spent some time with Baruch, Shawon, and their battery-swapping startup company, PopWheels. Wh…
The Future of Transportation Has Arrived With Your Pad Thai [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:38
Baruch Herzfeld is the CEO and co-founder of PopWheels, where he is working to develop New York City's first e-bike battery-swapping network. PopWheels aims to solve the growing problem of e-bike battery fires. The compa…
Fixing America's Car Culture with David Zipper [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:50
Happy New Year! We're kicking off 2024 by bringing you our conversation with David Zipper, one of the hardest-working analysts on the transportation scene today. You may be familiar with David from his writing at Bloombe…
TEASER: Listener Origin Stories [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:27
Last month the three hosts told their origin stories, or how they first became aware of the problems associated with cars and automobile dependency. Our stories included everything from lessons learned during early drivi…