The Neck Fans Are Coming
Wearable tech doesn’t have to be expensive to be revolutionary.
September 5, 2024
23 min
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258 of 364
Episode 88 · September 5, 2024
The Neck Fans Are Coming
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The Atlantic Episodes Around September 5, 2024
Episode 258 of 364 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
23:00This episodeThe Neck Fans Are Coming
Summary
After successive heat waves across the country this summer, people finally found an unexpected source of relief: the neck fan. Consumer-product geniuses made the latest model look like Beats headphones, and suddenly they were on many hot, hot necks. Why did the neck fan take off? Does it actually cool you down or just make you feel cooler?
We talk with Saahil Desai, who notices new and interesting things at the intersection of technology and consumer culture. Desai brings his own beloved neck fan to the studio and answers the question: Of all wearable technology, why did this one manage to break through social norms? And what does this mean for the future of an industry that has promised a lot of innovation but struggled to introduce genuinely new wearables into people’s daily lives?
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