The Five: ‘99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret,’ defrosted mammoth carcasses in Siberia and the Balloon Boy scandal solved

Stephanie Curtis, Cube Critic and program director for MPR News, regularly drops by with ideas about what to watch, read, listen to or otherwise experience. This week’s recommendations:

1) ‘99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret’ by Craig Brown is gossipy, insightful, and very, very funny. It will make you glad that you are not a princess and glad that you never had to experience a withering putdown from the younger sister of the woman who still sits on the British throne.

2) Certain places in the world are warming faster than others. And the consequences -- whether benefits or drawbacks -- of climate change vary. But who ever imagined that recently defrosted mammoth carcasses would be a problem and a small windfall?

Read:

Radical warming in Siberia leaves millions on unstable ground

3) Happy 10th anniversary to the Balloon Boy scandal. Ten years ago this month, the country was captivated by a bizarre spectacle in Fort Collins, Colo., that was colloquially dubbed the Balloon Boy Hoax. Although Richard Heene, the so-called Balloon Boy’s father, pleaded guilty to charges related to the prank, it was never fully clear whether it was the scam that police made it out to be.

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For the first time, the true story has been revealed:

The Ballon Boy Hoax Solved

4) The podcast Switched on Pop "reveals the secret formulas that make pop songs so infectious."

Here is a classic episode:

All About Those Baseline Assumptions About Feminism in Pop

5) “This Too Shall Pass” by Darrin Bradbury...he's a little Freedy Johnston, a little Todd Snider:

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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