Unintended Consequences

Patrick · Nerra Network
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Every day, one true story of good intentions gone sideways. From cobra bounties in colonial Delhi to recommendation algorithms, each episode follows a single case through the original idea, how it rolled out, the unintended fallout, and the lessons that still apply — told with empathy for the people who tried. AI Disclosure: This podcast is curated by Patrick but uses AI-generated voice synthesis for audio production.

  1. 1h ago

    Ep 151: Diclofenac given to Indian cattle from 1994 cut vulture numbers to one-thousandth and…

    Diclofenac given to Indian cattle from 1994 cut vulture numbers to one-thousandth and added over 100,000 human deaths yearly. Segment 1 — The Cold Open In 1994, after the patent on the painkiller diclofenac expired, Indian generic manufacturers began selling the drug at low cost for treating cattle. Within a decade the three Gyps vulture species that had once numbered in the tens of millions across the subcontinent fell to roughly one-thousandth of their earlier abundance. ... Sources: aeaweb.org · cambridge.org · journals.plos.org · pure.psu.edu · nature.com AI Disclosure: This podcast is curated by Patrick but uses AI-generated voice synthesis for audio production. If this episode was useful, a rating or a short review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify is how the next listener finds the show — and following it in your app means the next episode is there when you are. 📝 Full show notes, transcript & sources: read the episode page 📬 Get the sources and notes by email, free: join the newsletter 🌐 Part of the Nerra Network — explore every show at nerranetwork.com.

  2. 1d ago

    Ep 150: India issued 80 million free gas connections since 2016, yet 90 percent of users still…

    India issued 80 million free gas connections since 2016, yet 90 percent of users still burned firewood. Segment 1 — The Cold Open On 1 May 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, and launched the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, promising free LPG connections to five crore poor households so women would no longer cook over wood and dung fires. By September 2019 the scheme had delivered more than eight crore connections. ... Sources: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · thehindu.com · pib.gov.in · pibindia.wordpress.com · data.gov.in Correction to episode 149: This episode said Wisconsin's yearly savings from fewer deer-vehicle collisions, about $10.9 million, were roughly 63 times the livestock losses the state had paid out "over the preceding decades", after putting those payments at about $3 million over 35 years. The 2021 PNAS study compares one year with one year: the annual collision savings were about 63 times the state's annual compensation for verified wolf kills of livestock. The headline's "24 percent each year" is also wrong: collisions in counties wolves entered were about 24 percent lower, a drop in level, not a cut repeated every year. AI Disclosure: This podcast is curated by Patrick but uses AI-generated voice synthesis for audio production. If this episode was useful, a rating or a short review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify is how the next listener finds the show — and following it in your app means the next episode is there when you are. 📝 Full show notes, transcript & sources: read the episode page 📬 Get the sources and notes by email, free: join the newsletter 🌐 Part of the Nerra Network — explore every show at nerranetwork.com.

  3. 2d ago

    Ep 149: Wolves entering 29 Wisconsin counties cut deer-vehicle collisions by about 24 percent.

    Wolves entering 29 Wisconsin counties cut deer-vehicle collisions by about 24 percent. Segment 1 — The Cold Open In the winter of 2009, a radio-collared wolf crossed a county road in northern Wisconsin and paused to scent-mark a stretch of pavement that also served as a deer travel corridor. Within two years, local deer began shifting their movement patterns away from that same stretch. ... Sources: theatlantic.com · arstechnica.com · pnas.org · pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · sciencenews.org · eurekalert.org · web.archive.org · onlinelibrary.wiley.com AI Disclosure: This podcast is curated by Patrick but uses AI-generated voice synthesis for audio production. If this episode was useful, a rating or a short review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify is how the next listener finds the show — and following it in your app means the next episode is there when you are. 📝 Full show notes, transcript & sources: read the episode page 📬 Get the sources and notes by email, free: join the newsletter 🌐 Part of the Nerra Network — explore every show at nerranetwork.com.

  4. 3d ago

    Ep 148: In 1988, the Philippine law meant to redistribute 4,900 hectares of Hacienda Luisita…

    In 1988, the Philippine law meant to redistribute 4,900 hectares of Hacienda Luisita instead let owners keep control through shares. Segment 1 — The Cold Open In June 1988, Congress passed the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law to transfer large estates to the families who tilled them. On the Cojuangco family’s Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, a stock-distribution plan approved the next year gave farmworkers shares instead of title to the land. ... Sources: docslib.org · ideas.repec.org · gov.ph · ang-kaalaman.com · lawphil.net · jur.ph · elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph · lis.dar.gov.ph AI Disclosure: This podcast is curated by Patrick but uses AI-generated voice synthesis for audio production. 🎬 Watch on YouTube (public from 7:00 PM ET): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa-L5OiuZtY If this episode was useful, a rating or a short review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify is how the next listener finds the show — and following it in your app means the next episode is there when you are. 📝 Full show notes, transcript & sources: read the episode page 📬 Get the sources and notes by email, free: join the newsletter 🌐 Part of the Nerra Network — explore every show at nerranetwork.com.

  5. 4d ago

    Ep 147: Thirty-eight Dutch Large Coppers released at Woodwalton Fen in 1927 required annual…

    Thirty-eight Dutch Large Coppers released at Woodwalton Fen in 1927 required annual captive releases for over sixty years. Segment 1 — The Cold Open In the summer of 1928 more than a thousand adult Large Coppers flew across the sedge and pools of Woodwalton Fen. Capt. E.B. Purefoy had brought thirty-eight Dutch butterflies to the site the year before and planted their foodplant, great water dock, in advance. ... Sources: learnbutterflies.com · dispar.org · ukbutterflies.co.uk · archive.org · sciencedirect.com · conservationevidence.com · greatfen.org.uk Correction to episode 146: This episode said corn prices rose roughly 30 percent between 2008 and 2016 as ethanol demand grew. They did not: U.S. corn prices climbed to a peak in 2012 and then fell, and the 2016 season-average price was below the 2008 level. The ethanol mandate's effect on prices is a modelled counterfactual, not an observed rise over that span. AI Disclosure: This podcast is curated by Patrick but uses AI-generated voice synthesis for audio production. If this episode was useful, a rating or a short review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify is how the next listener finds the show — and following it in your app means the next episode is there when you are. 📝 Full show notes, transcript & sources: read the episode page 📬 Get the sources and notes by email, free: join the newsletter 🌐 Part of the Nerra Network — explore every show at nerranetwork.com.

  6. 5d ago

    Ep 146: The 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard expanded U.S. corn area by 2.8 million hectares, raising…

    The 2007 Renewable Fuel Standard expanded U.S. corn area by 2.8 million hectares, raising nitrate flows into the Gulf. Segment 1 — The Cold Open In the spring of 2008, farmers across Iowa and Illinois prepared fields for record corn plantings after Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act the previous December. Policymakers had intended the expanded Renewable Fuel Standard to cut oil imports and lower tailpipe emissions by blending more corn ethanol into gasoline. ... Sources: pnas.org · govinfo.gov · epa.gov AI Disclosure: This podcast is curated by Patrick but uses AI-generated voice synthesis for audio production. If this episode was useful, a rating or a short review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify is how the next listener finds the show — and following it in your app means the next episode is there when you are. 📝 Full show notes, transcript & sources: read the episode page 📬 Get the sources and notes by email, free: join the newsletter 🌐 Part of the Nerra Network — explore every show at nerranetwork.com.

  7. 6d ago

    Ep 145: Thirty-two major dams on the Tigris and Euphrates reduced the flood pulses that fed Iraq's…

    Thirty-two major dams on the Tigris and Euphrates reduced the flood pulses that fed Iraq's Mesopotamian marshes. Segment 1 — The Cold Open In the early 2000s, Landsat images showed the vast reed beds and shallow lakes of southern Iraq reduced to cracked salt flats dotted with dead fish and abandoned buffalo. ... Sources: mdpi.com · wired.com · researchgate.net · earthobservatory.nasa.gov · svs.gsfc.nasa.gov · press.un.org · wedocs.unep.org AI Disclosure: This podcast is curated by Patrick but uses AI-generated voice synthesis for audio production. If this episode was useful, a rating or a short review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify is how the next listener finds the show — and following it in your app means the next episode is there when you are. 📝 Full show notes, transcript & sources: read the episode page 🌐 Part of the Nerra Network — explore every show at nerranetwork.com.

  8. Oct 16

    Ep 144: Seventy percent of Strait of Georgia coho catch came from hatcheries by 2001 despite lower…

    Seventy percent of Strait of Georgia coho catch came from hatcheries by 2001 despite lower survival than wild fish. Segment 1 — The Cold Open In the early 2000s, biologists sampling coho salmon in the Strait of Georgia found that seven out of every ten fish carried a hatchery mark. The Salmonid Enhancement Program, launched in 1977 to increase overall abundance for fishers and coastal communities, had produced exactly that numerical success. ... Sources: onlinelibrary.wiley.com · publications.gc.ca · searanching.org · pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca AI Disclosure: This podcast is curated by Patrick but uses AI-generated voice synthesis for audio production. If this episode was useful, a rating or a short review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify is how the next listener finds the show — and following it in your app means the next episode is there when you are. 📝 Full show notes, transcript & sources: read the episode page 🌐 Part of the Nerra Network — explore every show at nerranetwork.com.

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About

Every day, one true story of good intentions gone sideways. From cobra bounties in colonial Delhi to recommendation algorithms, each episode follows a single case through the original idea, how it rolled out, the unintended fallout, and the lessons that still apply — told with empathy for the people who tried. AI Disclosure: This podcast is curated by Patrick but uses AI-generated voice synthesis for audio production.

Information

  • Creator
    Patrick · Nerra Network
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    151
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026
  • Show Website
    Unintended Consequences