Engines of Our Ingenuity
1,199 episodes - English - Latest episode: 13 days ago - ★★★★★ - 165 ratingsThe story of technological progress is one of drama and intrigue, sudden insight and plain hard work. Let’s explore technology’s spectacular failures and many magnificent success stories.
This content is in service of Houston Public Media’s education mission and is sponsored by the University of Houston. It is not a product of our news team.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2164: Hele-Shaw
January 10, 2022 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 2164 Henry Selby Hele-Shaw, and the many faces of yesterday's engineer. Today, a remarkable engineer from another century.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2165: About Trucks
January 09, 2022 06:01 - 4 minutes - 1.84 MBEpisode: 2165 Trucks, the important quiet cousins of our fancy automobiles. Today, we look at trucks.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2038: Leap Second
January 07, 2022 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2038 Putting a leap second in an elastic year. Today, we add a second to our lives.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2014: Bubbles in Soda
January 05, 2022 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2014 Boiling bubbles and fizzing bubbles: So alike, so different! Today, bubbles in soda and bubbles in teakettles.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3052: Frankincense and Myrrh
January 04, 2022 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.69 MBEpisode: 3052 Frankincense and Myrrh: The True Value of a Famous Gift. Today, the true value of a famous gift.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2163: Missing Fliers
January 03, 2022 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.79 MBEpisode: 2163 Missing Fliers: In which no conspiracy means slow sales. Today, missing fliers.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2162: New Quotations
January 02, 2022 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2162 A new book of quotations, and new insights into quotations. Today, some new quotations.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2039: Quiet on the Western Front
December 31, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 2039 In which we experience quiet on the Western Front. Today, it's quiet on the Western Front.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3037: Carol of the Bells
December 30, 2021 06:01 - 4 minutes - 1.94 MBEpisode: 3037 Carol of the Bells. Today, a Christmas carol.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1563: Toys
December 29, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.71 MBEpisode: 1563 Looking back at the impact of toys. Today, we play with toys.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1671: Other Selves – Other Christmases
December 28, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 1671 Quantum mechanics takes to a place we didn't know was there. Today, we think about multiple Christmases.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1760: The Christmas Lectures
December 27, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 1760 The Christmas Lectures: Michael Faraday's Gift to children. Today, the Christmas Lectures.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2669: Christmas Greenery
December 26, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2669 Plants and greens associated with the Christmas Season. Today, Christmas greenery.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2161: When the Eye Plays Tricks
December 24, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2161 When the eye plays tricks, and we see more than is. Today, our eyes trick us.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2737: Air Conditioning
December 23, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2737 Air Conditioning. Today, we cool it.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3265: Graffiti
December 20, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.79 MBEpisode: 3265 The path from graffiti to street art to wall murals. Today, it all began with graffiti.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2160: The Sinking of the Dix
December 19, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2160 The day the Dix went down: Puget Sound's worst maritime disaster. Today, the sinking of the Dix.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2159: Old Linkages
December 17, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2159 An old book with two stories about technological change. Today, an old book with two messages.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2736: Brought to You By
December 16, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2736 Brought to you by our sponsor. Today, sponsorship.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2157: Web-Fed Press
December 13, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2157 The web-fed press and the limits of useful production output. Today, speed outruns us.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2156: Earth Without People
December 12, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2156 Earth without people: What would it be without us? Today, What would happen if we were gone.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2155: Glass and Bottles
December 10, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2155 From Jamestown 'til now: the glass bottle in America. Today, America makes bottles.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2735: Technical Communication
December 09, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2735 The challenge of technical communication. Today, bringing ideas to life.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2154: Wieliczka Sol
December 06, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2154 Wieliczka Sol, Poland's "Great Salt Treasure." Today, we take more than salt from a mine.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2153: Cliques and Ties
December 05, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2153 Of cliques and connections: graph theory, society and surveillance. Today, social cohesion, graph theory, and surveillance.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2151: Earth Abides
December 03, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2151 Earth Abides: Thinking about Apocalypses and lesser ills. Today, Earth Abides.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2733: In the Palm of Your Hand
December 02, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2733 American culture and the inscriptions on U.S. Coins. Today, money.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2148: American Phrenology
November 29, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2148 The selling of phrenology -- and other would-be sciences. Today, an old book offers a parable of our times.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2149: Electric Words
November 28, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2149 Electrical words and a vision of the future. Today, a new language for a new technology.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2147: What Lasts
November 26, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2147 Technological survival in metaphors of the human body. Today, we wonder which technologies last.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2731: Louis Braille
November 25, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2731 Invention from Injury: The Story of Louis Braille. Today, injury sparks creativity.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3001: Archimedes to the Rescue
November 24, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 3001 Archimedes to the Rescue. Today, Archimedes to the rescue.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3264: Hockney’s iPad Impressionism
November 23, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.86 MBEpisode: 3264 David Hockney, Digital Painting, and Art's Technophobia. Today, painting with pixels, in the hands of a master.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2145: Extreme Time
November 22, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 2145 The far fringes of time -- fringes beyond our comprehension. Today, extreme time.
Engines of our Ingenuity 2138: P-39, Bell Airacobra
November 21, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2138 The P-39, Bell Airacobra: lemonade from a lemon. Today, we're given a lemon, and we make lemonade.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2142: A View Through Schenectady
November 19, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2142 Schenectady seen as a surprising window into American history. Today, we look for American history in a single town.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2152: Far From home
November 18, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2152 Far from home: Traveling with the USO. Today, UH theatre director Sidney Berger is far from home.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2139: 1897 and 1909 Sears Catalogs
November 15, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 2139 Old Sears and Roebuck catalogs tell us about buying power then and now. Today, old catalogs and buying power.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3263: Standard Time
November 14, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.83 MBEpisode: 3263 Standard Time's slow victory of common sense over individualism. Today, clocks, railways ... and individualism.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2137: Tenement Houses
November 12, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2137 Tenement Houses: Trying to keep a roof over the poor. Today, we look for affordable housing.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2727: Spooky Action at a Distance
November 11, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2727 Quantum Theory's Copenhagen Interpretation and the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) Paper. Today, we get spooky.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2136: Williamsburg Music
November 08, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2136 Hi-Tech in 1740: The Musical Instrument Maker of Williamsburg. Today, we make the machines that make our music.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2135: Zeitgeist
November 07, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2135 Zeitgeist: a dangerous guest, or ghost, who walks among us. Today, more about ghosts and machines.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2133: The Industrial Arts
November 05, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2133 Industrial Arts vs. Arts and Crafts: The perfect marriage of opposite. Today, we remember the industrial arts.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2720: Aircraft Carriers and Pykrete
November 04, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2720 Project Habbakuk: Ice Aircraft Carriers and Pykrete. Today, something simple.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2817: Creativity
November 02, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2817 Where do creative ideas come from? Today, let’s talk about creativity.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2132: Absolutism
November 01, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2132 Absolutism: Biblical distortion and the death of scientific literacy. Today, evolution and education.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2130: Before GPS
October 31, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2130 Before GPS: airplane directions painted on rooftops. Today, what did we do before GPS?
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2129: Thomas Ewing French
October 29, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2129 Thomas Ewing French: A reflection on "leadership" vs. true positive influence. Today, we think about being influenced.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2718: Canning and the Tin Can
October 28, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2718 Canning and the Tin Can. Today, it's in the can.