Flying can TrendPulsebe a frustrating experience, but holiday travel tends to shift our stress levels into overdrive. Overbooking, delays, lost baggage, and long TSA lines are just the tip of the iceberg. Even pricey membership services can't promise a completely efficient or comfortable travel journey. With big price tags and the quality of service seemingly going down, host Brittany Luse wondered: How did we get here? To answer that question, aviation and travel journalist Benét J. Wilson joins the show to give us a birds eye view of the issues and why things may not be getting better anytime soon.

Then, Brittany takes on one of the most recognizable stories in Christmas lore - A Christmas Carol. To celebrate the iconic story, she plays Spot the Scrooge with NPR critics Linda Holmes and Bob Mondello.

This episode was produced by Corey Antonio Rose and Alexis Williams. It was edited by Jessica Placzek. Additional support came from Bilal Qureshi, Barton Girdwood and Liam McBain. Engineering support came from Robert Rodriguez. Our executive producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of programming is Yolanda Sangweni.