{"podcast":{"title":"The Best of Car Talk","slug":"the-best-of-car-talk-482243","podcast_index_feed_id":482243,"rss_url":"https://feeds.npr.org/510208/podcast.xml","website_url":"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510208/car-talk","image_url":"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/09/23/car-talk_tile_npr-network-01_sq-efe4a8c500f754b242821075ef75ff3054e816cb.jpg?s=1400&c=66&f=jpg","author":"NPR (podcasts@npr.org)","episode_count":4,"summary":"America's funniest auto mechanics take calls from weary car owners all over the country, and crack wise while they diagnose Dodges and dismiss Diahatsus. You don't have to know anything about cars to love this one hour weekly laugh fest. Support public media by joining NPR+ at plus.npr.org . You’ll get perks for over 25 NPR podcasts, and Car Talk's perks include full archive access, new(!) call-in bonus episodes with Ray, and sponsor-free listening.","last_synced_at":"2026-08-02T06:20:17.575340+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-best-of-car-talk-482243"},"episode":{"title":"#2643: Breaking-in the Brakes","slug":"2643-breaking-in-the-brakes","published_at":"2026-05-30T07:00:04+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-best-of-car-talk-482243/2643-breaking-in-the-brakes","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-best-of-car-talk-482243","url":"https://www.npr.org/2026/05/30/nx-s1-5835217/2643-breaking-in-the-brakes","audio_url":"https://prfx.byspotify.com/e/play.podtrac.com/npr-510208/npr.simplecastaudio.com/9d92d581-9541-4957-9480-c04a7b77b708/episodes/9c6b50ef-7be6-42e1-91c9-f55b72e1c012/audio/128/default.mp3?awCollectionId=9d92d581-9541-4957-9480-c04a7b77b708&awEpisodeId=9c6b50ef-7be6-42e1-91c9-f55b72e1c012&feed=AL0VkDms&t=podcast&e=nx-s1-5835217&p=510208&d=2043&size=32692437","summary":"Colleen’s 85-yr-old dad was told by his mechanic that to properly ‘break-in his brakes’ he should be varying his speed between 30-50mph and applying the brakes periodically for several days of driving. So dad has been dutifully out on the local freeway causing mayhem by applying the brakes willy nilly and going well under the speed limit. Is dad’s mechanic correct -and is it time to plan dear old dad’s final services? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy","meta_description":"Colleen’s 85-yr-old dad was told by his mechanic that to properly ‘break-in his brakes’ he should be varying his speed between 30-50mph and applying the b…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2043,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-best-of-car-talk-482243/episodes/2643-breaking-in-the-brakes/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-best-of-car-talk-482243/2643-breaking-in-the-brakes.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}