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 2026: Ritual Origins
April 18, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2026 Ritual origins of technology: balance and metaphor. Today, we meet the mother of invention, and she's not the lady we expected.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2025: L.U.C.A.
April 16, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2025 Looking for LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor. Today, our last universal common ancestor.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2603: Correlation
April 15, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2603 Correlation and Risk: When more egg baskets don't help. Today, eggs and baskets.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2798: Transistor
April 14, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2798 Behold the Mighty Transistor. Today, a small item creates a large impact.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3252: Curious George Shows Us the Stars
April 13, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.87 MBEpisode: 3252 The Astronomy Lessons of Curious George's Creator. Today, Curious George shows us the stars.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2023: George Hubert Wilkens
April 12, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2023 George Hubert Wilkins: a life brimful and running over. Today, we risk our lives.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2022: Alexander W. Brandon
April 11, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2022 Alexander W. Brandon's, and my father's, old surveying book. Today, another ghost in an old book.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2020: Screwdrivers and Obviousness
April 09, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.72 MBEpisode: 2020 The screwdriver: archetype of subtle obviousness. Today, let's talk about screwdrivers.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2599: Strange Attractors and Imagery
April 08, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2599 The Art of Attraction: Imagery from Strange Attractors. Today, the art of attraction.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2018: The Chamberlen Family Secret
April 07, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2018 The Chamberlen family secret: the invention of forceps. Today, guest historian Cathy Patterson reveals family secrets.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2598: The Three Body Problem
April 06, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2598 Henri Poincaré, the three body problem, and chaos. Today, three bodies.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2019: Robert Millikan
April 05, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2019 Robert Millikan: a remarkable late-bloomer in modern physics. Today, the man who didn't want to be a physicist.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2017: Stretching
April 04, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2017 In which we S-T-R-E-T-C-H our imaginations. Today, let us stretch out imaginations.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2016: Multigenium
April 02, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2016 In which we invent a new word: Multigenium. Today, let's fill a void with a new word.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2596: Golf Club Grooves
April 01, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2596 Golf Club Grooves: How small changes in technology can cause controversy. Today’s episode is brought to you by the letters U and V.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2873: Encounter of the Third Kind
March 31, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2873 The Search for Extraterrestrial Life; Drake Equation Explained; Aliens from Other Planets. Today, an encounter of the third kind.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 3251: Alma Mahler
March 30, 2021 05:01 - 4 minutes - 1.91 MBEpisode: 3251 Alma Mahler, Composer of Haunting Songs. Today, music that blooms forth.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2015: Five Hornblowers
March 29, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2015 Five Hornblowers and three generations of steam engine development. Today, five Hornblowers.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2013: The Battleship Texas
March 28, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2013 Battleship Texas: a lesson in technological change. Today, Battleship Texas.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2012: 125 Questions
March 26, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2012 In which we use 125 questions to explain science. Today, 125 Questions.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2594: Ptolemy’s Geographia
March 25, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2594 Mapping the World: Ptolemy's Geographia. Today, a man and a map.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2448: Rachmaninoff Unblocked
March 24, 2021 05:01 - 4 minutes - 1.84 MBEpisode: 2448 Sergei Rachmaninoff visits a hypnotist to remove his writer's block. Today, a composer unblocked.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2591: Instant Runoff Voting
March 23, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2591 Instant runoff voting and the Academy Awards. Today, what’s best?
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2011: Doubt & Leadership
March 22, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2011 Doubt and Leadership: The value of finding our own ignorance. Today, thoughts on leadership and doubt.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2009: The End of Books: 1894
March 21, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2009 The End of Books, as seen in 1894. Today, a surprising vision of a future.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2008: Figuring Out Science
March 19, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2008 Figuring Out Science: Our surprising scientifically-savvy great-grandparents. Today, figuring out science in 1876.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2588: Synthetic Sound Waves
March 18, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2588 Synthetic Sound Waves. Today, the sound of music.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2824: A Brass Catalogue
March 17, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2824 An 18th-century catalogue of brass objects, an early approach to marketing, and decorative drawer handles. Today, we look at a mysterious catalogue.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2585: Measuring Race Times
March 16, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2585 The technology of timing races. Today, who won that race?
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2007: Canonical Inventors
March 15, 2021 05:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2007 The Canonical Inventor, stepping over the tipping point. Today, canonical inventors.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2005: Abram S. Hewitt
March 14, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2005 Abram S. Hewitt: The other side of genius. Today, the other side of genius.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2004: Rice and Silk
March 12, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2004 Rice, silk, taxes, and technological change in medieval China. Today, rice and silk.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2583: Children and Their Goals
March 11, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2583 Children and their Goals. Today, president, pope, astronaut.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2818: The Pompeian Paradox
March 10, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2818 The Pompeian Paradox and Fiorelli's Body Casts. Today, the Pompeian paradox.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2578: Water Towers
March 09, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2578 The Wonders of Water Towers. Today, water flows downhill.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2003: Counterfeit
March 08, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2003 Counterfeit: On making money without delivering the goods. Today, we make money.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2001: Jacobean Evolution
March 05, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2001 Of beasts, Bibles and Evolution: Intimations of Darwin in King James' court. Today, beasts and Bibles.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2576: Screw Caps for Wine
March 04, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2576 Are screw caps good for wine? Today, a turn of the screw.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2691: The Body at Vacuum
March 03, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2691 What Happens to the Human Body When Exposed to Vacuum? Today, the body at vacuum.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2575: Prime Numbers
March 02, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2575 The illustrious history of Prime Numbers. Today, some numbers for the ages.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2000: The Arc of Invention
March 01, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.73 MBEpisode: 2000 The Arc of Inventions, and the problem of selecting a hero. Today, the Arc of Inventions.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2656: An American in Paris
February 28, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.76 MBEpisode: 2656 An American in Paris: Eugene Bullard, Black hero in the jazz age. Today, an American in Paris.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1076: Slave Inventors
February 26, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.64 MBEpisode: 1076 Slave Inventors and question, "Who owns an idea?" Today, we ask, "Who should own a patent?"
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2572: Melville and Anna Bissell
February 25, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2572 Melville and Anna Bissell and the Carpet Sweeper. Today, a husband and wife engineer success.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2684: Will Computers Replace Scientists?
February 24, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2684 Will Computers Replace Scientists? Today, will computers replace scientists?
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2570: Celebrating Human Ingenuity
February 23, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.74 MBEpisode: 2570 Celebrating Human Ingenuity. Today, a story in two parts.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1998: Fast Presses
February 22, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.8 MBEpisode: 1998 Fast presses and the new literacy. Today, let the presses roll.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 1709: Cap Wigington
February 21, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.78 MBEpisode: 1709 Cap Wigington. Today, a remarkable architect.
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2563: Isaac Asimov
February 18, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.75 MBEpisode: 2563 The Prolific Isaac Asimov. Today, science or fiction?
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2666: Alan Turing
February 17, 2021 06:01 - 3 minutes - 1.77 MBEpisode: 2666 Codes, ciphers and Alan Turing. Today codes, ciphers and Alan Turing.