Engines of Our Ingenuity
1,199 episodes - English - Latest episode: 14 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.
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Episodes
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2066: The Other Titanics
June 18, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 2066 The Olympic and the Titanic on the day that ships grew too larger. Today, the other Titanics.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2644: Camping and Creature Comforts
June 17, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2644 Camping and Creature Comforts. Today, taking it with you.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2549: Cahokia
June 16, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2549 Cahokia, an Ancient American Metropolis. Today, an ancient American metropolis.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2643: P ≠ NP (or is it?)
June 15, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2643 P ≠ NP (or is it?): an important problem in complexity theory. Today, an educated guess.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3255: Engineering Campuses
June 14, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 3255 Engineering campuses and real-world technological change. Today, a lesson from an engineering campus.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2064: Birds in the Brush
June 13, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 2064 Seeing what we might have otherwise driven past on the South Texas coast. Today, let's go birding.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2063: Edward Youmans
June 11, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 2063 Edward Youmans and 19th-century American education. Today, education in the outback.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2642: Structured Data
June 10, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2642 The Importance of Structuring Data. Today, putting it all together.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2740: Slot Machines
June 09, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2740 The mathematics of slot machines. Today, the mathematics of slot machines.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2640: The Singing Nun
June 08, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 2640 Joy and Tragedy in the Life of the Singing Nun. Today, joy and tragedy.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2061: We Hear an A’Yahos
June 07, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2061 The voice of the a'yahos: Legends and natural disasters. Today, we hear an a'yahos.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2060: 75 Years of TIME
June 06, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.79 MBEpisode: 2060 A 75th anniversary edition of Time magazine. Today, 75 years of Time.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2056: Humans With Gills
June 04, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.8 MBEpisode: 2056 In which we humans learn how to breathe water. Today, let's swim like fish.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2639: The Space Needle
June 03, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2639 The Seattle World's Fair and the Space Needle. Today, a landmark in the clouds.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3254: The Power of Pink
June 01, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 3254 Pink and the Politics of Gender. Today, the power of pink.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2055: A Future America
May 31, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 2055 Viewing America from the edge of its land, or the edge of its future. Today, mathematics fails to tell us what's inside Virginia.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2059: William Perkin & Dye
May 30, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.8 MBEpisode: 2059 A quiet researcher unleashes a process-chemistry-based industry. Today, a retiring chemist shapes an industrial world.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2054: The Zephyr
May 28, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.81 MBEpisode: 2054 The Zephyr, a silver streak across America in 1934. Today, a silver streak.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2636: Admiral Michael Mullen
May 27, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2636 Admiral Michael Mullen and Mathematics. Today, leading the charge.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2473: King Ludwig’s Castle
May 26, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.77 MBEpisode: 2473 King Ludwig II and his castle at Neuschwanstein. Today, a swan on a mountain.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2631: The Double Slit Experiment
May 25, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2631 The Double Slit Experiment. Today, a mysterious experiment.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2052: Sir Goldsworthy Gurney
May 24, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.8 MBEpisode: 2052 The many inventions of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney. Today, we ride a gurney.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2051: Music to Fill the Room
May 23, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 2051 In which we rediscover how to fit the music to the room. Today, music fills a room.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2049: The deBrys and the Merians
May 21, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2049 The deBrys and the Merians: Two views of the New World. Today, the New World, both real and Imagined.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2630: Determinism and the Many Worlds Interpretation
May 20, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2630 Determinism and the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2978: Matisse’s Verve
May 19, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2978 Henri Matisse cuts paper to design a cover for the art magazine Verve.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2627: The Bohr-Einstein Debates
May 18, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2627 Clash of the Titans: The Bohr-Einstein Debates. Today, a clash of titans.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2046: Beginning with Conclusions
May 17, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2046 We struggle not to begin an inquiry with its conclusion. Today, we try not to begin with our conclusion.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2045: Thomas Blanchard
May 16, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.77 MBEpisode: 2045 Thomas Blanchard, little-known, and remarkably productive, American inventor. Today, a great inventor flies under our radar.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2044: Kettering’s Buzz Bomb
May 14, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2044 Kettering's failed guided missile -- a 1918 Buzz-Bomb. Today, Kettering's Buzz Bomb.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2623: Thomas Carlyle’s Past and Present
May 13, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2623 Thomas Carlyle and the Working of Free Markets. Today, economic salvation.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2622: Watson
May 11, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2622 Watson: A computer system that plays Jeopardy!. Today, Jeopardy!.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2042: Science Remaking the World
May 10, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2042 Looking at a brave new scientific world in 1922. Today, science and change.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2041: James B. Emerson
May 09, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2041 James B. Emerson: iconoclastic 19th-C turbine developer. Today, an iconoclast tests turbines.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2037: Sleep
May 07, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.77 MBEpisode: 2037 Of sleep and dreams. Today, why do we sleep?
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1856: Form and Feeling
May 05, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 1856 Form and feeling, a necessary partnership. Today, our guest. Seattle actor Megan Cole, considers a necessary partnership.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2614: Pixels
May 04, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2614 Engineering Pictures Made of Pixels. Today, painting with pixels.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2036: Edward Frankland
May 03, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2036 Edward Frankland: A brilliant chemist with a weighty secret. Today, a remarkable Victorian chemist,and his dark secret.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2034: The High-Wheeler
May 02, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2034 The High-Wheeler, a brief and remarkable moment in bicycle evolution. Today, the brief day of the high-wheeler.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2033: Milton Grosvenor Howe
April 30, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2033 Milton Grosvenor Howe's remarkable drafting textbook. Today, an intimate look at America emerging.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2611: Kepler’s SOMNIUM
April 29, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2611 Early science fiction: Kepler's Somnium. Today, a dream.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2469: Ancel Keys
April 28, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: Ancel Keys and the Link between Diet and Heart Disease. Today, a heart doctor who wasn’t.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2608: Maria Telkes
April 27, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.77 MBEpisode: 2608 Maria Telkes: Solar Energy Pioneer. Today, here comes the sun.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2032: Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps
April 26, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2032 Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps: revolution and conservativism entwined. Today, a conservative voice in a radical cause.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2030: Ghosts Teaching History
April 25, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2030 In which we listen to ghosts, and they explain history to us. Today, we learn history from ghosts.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2029: The Polikarpov Fighters
April 23, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2029 The last great biplane fighter -- the Polikarpov beyond its prime. Today, an airplane in the shifting skies of war.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2606: More Beautiful Books
April 22, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2606 More Beautiful Books: revisiting books by the foot. Today, the measure of a book.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2707: Modeling
April 21, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2707 Models of the world. Today, let’s talk about models.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3253: Machine Learning
April 20, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 3253 Teaching Computers to Think. Today, Teaching a Computer.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2028: B-36
April 19, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.77 MBEpisode: 2028 The B-36: an airplane that fell in the crack of technological change. Today, we fall into a technological crack.