Engines of Our Ingenuity

Episode: 1439 A capital ship on an ocean trip: a reflection on battleships.  Today, let's talk about battleships.

Episode: 1438 The story of a failed airplane design -- the XP-75.  Today, we try to build a perfect airplane.

Episode: 1436 Adding it up in 1910: A book grapples with the coming 20th century.  Today, a world prepares to be transformed.

Episode: 2503 Story-Teller Rod Serling and the Twilight Zone.  Today, a story — submitted for your approval.

Episode: 2684 Will Computers Replace Scientists?  Today, will computers replace scientists?

Episode: 2873 The Search for Extraterrestrial Life; Drake Equation Explained; Aliens from Other Planets.  Today, an encounter of the third kind.

Episode: 1435 Rudolf Diesel, his engine, and a look at invention.  Today, meet Rudolf Diesel.

Episode: 1434 Reflections on systems, complexity, and modern life.  Today, let's see what happens when our technologies join forces.

Episode: 1432 Thoughts in dispraise of decisiveness.  Today, let's not decide.

Episode: 1431 In which dogs humanize us.  Today, some sidelights on the history of dogs.

Episode: 2501 Nietzsche, Strauss, Kubrick, and a Trilogy of Metaphor.  Today, a story — in three parts.

Episode: 2790 The Dynamics of Vaccine Scares.  Today, let's talk about vaccine scares.

Episode: 2714 Hub Motors, aka In-Wheel Motors and their applications in electric vehicles.  Today, re-inventing...wheels.

Episode: 1430 A concern about the complexity and danger of genius.  Today, I find genius puzzling.

Episode: 1429 Joseph Stalin and Russian aircraft records in the 1930s.  Today, Joseph Stalin tries to set flight distance records.

Episode: 1428 Why do men self-destruct and die sooner than women?  Today, men self-destruct.

Episode: 1427 Dominique de Menil, a creative legacy.  Today, I learn something at a fancy benefit dinner.

Episode: 3329 Cognitive Decline as We Age.  Today, a well-tempered mind.

Episode: 2884 Communicating Through Pictures: The Japanese Language.  Today, the images of Kanji.

Episode: 2813 Seneca the Younger and the Great Earthquake of 62 AD.  Today, an ancient earthquake.

Episode: 3328 A Brief History of Horses, and their role in Japan.  Today, an adventure on horseback.

Episode: 1426 The skyscraper: a Phoenix out of the great Chicago Fire.  Today, let's talk about skyscrapers.

Episode: 1425 Laying the transatlantic telegraph cable.  Today, Queen Victoria sends a telegram to President Buchanan.

Episode: 1424 La Sylphide: an elemental in the Industrial Revolution.  Today, a ballet gives us an odd window into history.

Episode: 3327 Different Methods of Pasteurization in Different Countries.  Today, an experiment.

Episode: 2658 Massively Multiplayer Mathematics.  Today, let's talk massively multiplayer mathematics.

Episode: 2456 The invention and history of Kodachrome film.  Today, photographic memory.

Episode: 3326 An old book on airplane structures reveals its secrets.  Today, we build old aeroplanes.

Episode: 1423 An encounter with Einstein.  Today, a young man lets history slip by him.

Episode: 1422 Technology in Alexandria, ca. 200 BC.  Today, a 2200-year-old age of invention.

Episode: 3325 Machines That Forgot How to Fail: An AI Guest's Perspective on Reliability.  Today, our guest, ChatGPT, talks about machines that forgot to fail.

Episode: 2495 Creativity Within Limits: Rules as a Source of Creativity.  Today, bounded creativity.

Episode: 3236 Analysis, Creativity, and the Humble Index Card.  Today, the humble index card.

Episode: 3324 Jimmy Doolittle, Inventor of Instrument Flying.  Today, flying blind.

Episode: 3323 We learn a new way of speaking in the 1930s.  Today, biting words.

Episode: 1421 The Rocket Boys, a moving story of adolescence and engineering.  Today, a book with a surprising subtext.

Episode: 1420 The Erie Canal.  Today, we ride 568 feet uphill in a barge.

Episode: 1419 Another way of looking at the 14th century Plague.  Today, population reduction by disaster.

Episode: 3322 Some Thoughts on the Future of High-Speed Rail.  Today, very fast trains.

Episode: 2824 An 18th-century catalogue of brass objects, an early approach to marketing, and decorative drawer handles.  Today, we look at a mysterious catalogue.

Episode: 2628 When traveling into space, how do you know you're there?  Today, astronaut Michael Barratt asks, where exactly is the border of space?

Episode: 1418 Does war influence technological evolution? Some surprising facts.  Today, we wonder how war influences technology.