Podcast appearances and mentions of christopher bonanos

Founders ✓ Claim Key Takeaways  “If Steve Jobs studied Edwin Land, I think every other founder should as well.” – David Senra Optimize for breadth as well as depth; hire the chemist who does photography on the side! Something magical exists at the intersection of the humanities and the sciences “Missionaries make better products.” – Jeff Bezos Missionaries and mercenaries are the two types of people that will be attracted to a companyWhile the mercenaries are there for the perks, status, and money, the missionaries are there to make better products because they believe in what the company is doingLeverage the power of demonstration: No argument in the world can compare with one dramatic demonstrationA first-class product needs first-class packaging and marketing! The founder is the guardian of the company's soul If you are lucky enough to find your life's work, why would you quit? You should take yourself seriously, but don't make yourself miserable; none of us get out of this alive Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgWhat I learned from rereading Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. ----Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. ----Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book----Episode Outline: — The most obvious parallel is to Apple Computer. Both companies specialized in relentless, obsessive refinement of their technologies. Both were established close to great research universities to attract talent. Both fetishized superior, elegant, covetable product design. And both companies exploded in size and wealth under an in-house visionary-godhead-inventor-genius. At Apple, that man was Steve Jobs. At Polaroid, the genius was Edwin Land. Just as Apple stories almost all lead back to Jobs, Polaroid lore always seems to focus on Land.— Both men were college dropouts; both became as rich as anyone could ever wish to be; and both insisted that their inventions would change the fundamental nature of human interaction.— Jobs expressed his deep admiration for Edwin Land. He called him a national treasure.— Books on Edwin Land:Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263)A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134)Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133)The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker (Founders #132)Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid(Founders #40)— Biography about Steve Jobs: Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli— Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science. I like that intersection. There's something magical about that place. There are a lot of people innovating, and that's not the main distinction of my career. The reason Apple resonates with people is that there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar, in that they both have a  desire to express themselves. In fact some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side. In the seventies computers became a way for people to express their creativity. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also great at science. Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor. —  Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson (Founders #214)— Book on Henry Ford:I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford by Richard Snow (Founders #9)The Autobiography of Henry Ford by Henry Ford (Founders #26) Today and Tomorrow Henry Ford (Founders #80) My Forty Years With Ford by Charles Sorensen  (Founders #118)The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten Year Road Trip by Jeff Guinn (Founders #190) — Another parallel to Jobs: Land's control over his company was nearly absolute, and he exercised it to a degree that was compelling and sometimes exhausting.— When you read a biography of Edwin land you see an incredibly smart, gifted, driven, focused person endure decade after decade of struggle. And more importantly —finally work his way through.— Another parallel to Jobs: You may be noticing that none of this has anything to do with instant photography. Polarizers rather than pictures would define the first two decades of lands intellectual life and would establish his company. Instant photos were an idea that came later on, a secondary business around which his company was completely recreated.— “Missionaries make better products.” —Jeff Bezos— His letter to shareholders gradually became a particularly dramatic showcase for his language and his thinking. These letters-really more like personal mission statements-are thoughtful and compact, and just eccentric enough to be completely engaging. Instead of discussing earnings and growth they laid out Land's World inviting everyone to join.— Land gave him a four-word job description: "Keeper of the language.”— No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration. — My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins (Founders #170)— The leap to Polaroid was like replacing a messenger on horseback with your first telephone.— Hire a paid critic:Norio Ohga, who had been a vocal arts student at the Tokyo University of Arts when he saw our first audio tape recorder back in 1950. I had had my eye on him for all those years because of his bold criticism of our first machine.He was a great champion of the tape recorder, but he was severe with us because he didn't think our early machine was good enough. It had too much wow and flutter, he said. He was right, of course; our first machine was rather primitive. We invited him to be a paid critic even while he was still in school. His ideas were very challenging. He said then, "A ballet dancer needs a mirror to perfect her style, her technique.— Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita.— Another parallel to Jobs: Don't kid yourself. Polaroid is a one man company.— He argued there was no reason that well-designed, wellmade computers couldn't command the same market share and margins as a luxury automobile.A BMW might get you to where you are going in the same way as a Chevy that costs half the price, but there will always be those who will pay for the better ride in the sexier car. Rather than competing with commodity PC makers like Dell, Compaq and Gateway, why not make only first-class products with high margins so that Apple could continue to develop even better first-class products?The company could make much bigger profits from selling a $3,000 machine rather than a $500 machine, even if they sold fewer of them.Why not, then, just concentrate on making the best $3,000 machines around? — Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products by Leander Kahney.— How To Turn Down A Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story by Billy Gallagher — Books on Enzo FerrariGo Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A.J. Baime. (Founders #97) Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and The Making of an Automotive Empire by Luca Dal Monte (Founders #98) Enzo Ferrari: The Man and The Machine by Brock Yates (Founders #220) — Soul in the game. Listen to how Edwin Land describes his product:We would not have known and have only just learned that a new kind of relationship between people in groups is brought into being by SX-70 when the members of a group are photographing and being photographed and sharing the photographs: it turns out that buried within us—there is latent interest in each other; there is tenderness, curiosity, excitement, affection, companionability and humor; it turns out, in this cold world where man grows distant from man,and even lovers can reach each other only briefly, that we have a yen for and a primordial competence for a quiet good-humored delight in each other:we have a prehistoric tribal competence for a non-physical, non-emotional, non-sexual satisfaction in being partners in the lonely exploration of a once empty planet.—  “Over the very long term, history shows that the chances of any business surviving in a manner agreeable to a company's owners are slim at best.” —Charlie Munger----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast 

Founders ✓ Claim Key Takeaways  “If Steve Jobs studied Edwin Land, I think every other founder should as well.” – David Senra Optimize for breadth as well as depth; hire the chemist who does photography on the side! Something magical exists at the intersection of the humanities and the sciences “Missionaries make better products.” – Jeff Bezos Missionaries and mercenaries are the two types of people that will be attracted to a companyWhile the mercenaries are there for the perks, status, and money, the missionaries are there to make better products because they believe in what the company is doingLeverage the power of demonstration: No argument in the world can compare with one dramatic demonstrationA first-class product needs first-class packaging and marketing! The founder is the guardian of the company's soul If you are lucky enough to find your life's work, why would you quit? You should take yourself seriously, but don't make yourself miserable; none of us get out of this alive Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgWhat I learned from rereading Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. ----Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. ----Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book----Episode Outline: — The most obvious parallel is to Apple Computer. Both companies specialized in relentless, obsessive refinement of their technologies. Both were established close to great research universities to attract talent. Both fetishized superior, elegant, covetable product design. And both companies exploded in size and wealth under an in-house visionary-godhead-inventor-genius. At Apple, that man was Steve Jobs. At Polaroid, the genius was Edwin Land. Just as Apple stories almost all lead back to Jobs, Polaroid lore always seems to focus on Land.— Both men were college dropouts; both became as rich as anyone could ever wish to be; and both insisted that their inventions would change the fundamental nature of human interaction.— Jobs expressed his deep admiration for Edwin Land. He called him a national treasure.— Books on Edwin Land:Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263)A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134)Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133)The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker (Founders #132)Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid(Founders #40)— Biography about Steve Jobs: Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli— Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science. I like that intersection. There's something magical about that place. There are a lot of people innovating, and that's not the main distinction of my career. The reason Apple resonates with people is that there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar, in that they both have a  desire to express themselves. In fact some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side. In the seventies computers became a way for people to express their creativity. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also great at science. Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor. —  Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson (Founders #214)— Book on Henry Ford:I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford by Richard Snow (Founders #9)The Autobiography of Henry Ford by Henry Ford (Founders #26) Today and Tomorrow Henry Ford (Founders #80) My Forty Years With Ford by Charles Sorensen  (Founders #118)The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten Year Road Trip by Jeff Guinn (Founders #190) — Another parallel to Jobs: Land's control over his company was nearly absolute, and he exercised it to a degree that was compelling and sometimes exhausting.— When you read a biography of Edwin land you see an incredibly smart, gifted, driven, focused person endure decade after decade of struggle. And more importantly —finally work his way through.— Another parallel to Jobs: You may be noticing that none of this has anything to do with instant photography. Polarizers rather than pictures would define the first two decades of lands intellectual life and would establish his company. Instant photos were an idea that came later on, a secondary business around which his company was completely recreated.— “Missionaries make better products.” —Jeff Bezos— His letter to shareholders gradually became a particularly dramatic showcase for his language and his thinking. These letters-really more like personal mission statements-are thoughtful and compact, and just eccentric enough to be completely engaging. Instead of discussing earnings and growth they laid out Land's World inviting everyone to join.— Land gave him a four-word job description: "Keeper of the language.”— No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration. — My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins (Founders #170)— The leap to Polaroid was like replacing a messenger on horseback with your first telephone.— Hire a paid critic:Norio Ohga, who had been a vocal arts student at the Tokyo University of Arts when he saw our first audio tape recorder back in 1950. I had had my eye on him for all those years because of his bold criticism of our first machine.He was a great champion of the tape recorder, but he was severe with us because he didn't think our early machine was good enough. It had too much wow and flutter, he said. He was right, of course; our first machine was rather primitive. We invited him to be a paid critic even while he was still in school. His ideas were very challenging. He said then, "A ballet dancer needs a mirror to perfect her style, her technique.— Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita.— Another parallel to Jobs: Don't kid yourself. Polaroid is a one man company.— He argued there was no reason that well-designed, wellmade computers couldn't command the same market share and margins as a luxury automobile.A BMW might get you to where you are going in the same way as a Chevy that costs half the price, but there will always be those who will pay for the better ride in the sexier car. Rather than competing with commodity PC makers like Dell, Compaq and Gateway, why not make only first-class products with high margins so that Apple could continue to develop even better first-class products?The company could make much bigger profits from selling a $3,000 machine rather than a $500 machine, even if they sold fewer of them.Why not, then, just concentrate on making the best $3,000 machines around? — Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products by Leander Kahney.— How To Turn Down A Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story by Billy Gallagher — Books on Enzo FerrariGo Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A.J. Baime. (Founders #97) Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and The Making of an Automotive Empire by Luca Dal Monte (Founders #98) Enzo Ferrari: The Man and The Machine by Brock Yates (Founders #220) — Soul in the game. Listen to how Edwin Land describes his product:We would not have known and have only just learned that a new kind of relationship between people in groups is brought into being by SX-70 when the members of a group are photographing and being photographed and sharing the photographs: it turns out that buried within us—there is latent interest in each other; there is tenderness, curiosity, excitement, affection, companionability and humor; it turns out, in this cold world where man grows distant from man,and even lovers can reach each other only briefly, that we have a yen for and a primordial competence for a quiet good-humored delight in each other:we have a prehistoric tribal competence for a non-physical, non-emotional, non-sexual satisfaction in being partners in the lonely exploration of a once empty planet.—  “Over the very long term, history shows that the chances of any business surviving in a manner agreeable to a company's owners are slim at best.” —Charlie Munger----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast 

Founders ✓ Claim Key Takeaways  “If Steve Jobs studied Edwin Land, I think every other founder should as well.” – David Senra Optimize for breadth as well as depth; hire the chemist who does photography on the side! Something magical exists at the intersection of the humanities and the sciences “Missionaries make better products.” – Jeff Bezos Missionaries and mercenaries are the two types of people that will be attracted to a companyWhile the mercenaries are there for the perks, status, and money, the missionaries are there to make better products because they believe in what the company is doingLeverage the power of demonstration: No argument in the world can compare with one dramatic demonstrationA first-class product needs first-class packaging and marketing! The founder is the guardian of the company's soul If you are lucky enough to find your life's work, why would you quit? You should take yourself seriously, but don't make yourself miserable; none of us get out of this alive Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgWhat I learned from rereading Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. ----Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. ----Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book----Episode Outline: — The most obvious parallel is to Apple Computer. Both companies specialized in relentless, obsessive refinement of their technologies. Both were established close to great research universities to attract talent. Both fetishized superior, elegant, covetable product design. And both companies exploded in size and wealth under an in-house visionary-godhead-inventor-genius. At Apple, that man was Steve Jobs. At Polaroid, the genius was Edwin Land. Just as Apple stories almost all lead back to Jobs, Polaroid lore always seems to focus on Land.— Both men were college dropouts; both became as rich as anyone could ever wish to be; and both insisted that their inventions would change the fundamental nature of human interaction.— Jobs expressed his deep admiration for Edwin Land. He called him a national treasure.— Books on Edwin Land:Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263)A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134)Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133)The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker (Founders #132)Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid(Founders #40)— Biography about Steve Jobs: Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli— Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science. I like that intersection. There's something magical about that place. There are a lot of people innovating, and that's not the main distinction of my career. The reason Apple resonates with people is that there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar, in that they both have a  desire to express themselves. In fact some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side. In the seventies computers became a way for people to express their creativity. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also great at science. Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor. —  Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson (Founders #214)— Book on Henry Ford:I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford by Richard Snow (Founders #9)The Autobiography of Henry Ford by Henry Ford (Founders #26) Today and Tomorrow Henry Ford (Founders #80) My Forty Years With Ford by Charles Sorensen  (Founders #118)The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten Year Road Trip by Jeff Guinn (Founders #190) — Another parallel to Jobs: Land's control over his company was nearly absolute, and he exercised it to a degree that was compelling and sometimes exhausting.— When you read a biography of Edwin land you see an incredibly smart, gifted, driven, focused person endure decade after decade of struggle. And more importantly —finally work his way through.— Another parallel to Jobs: You may be noticing that none of this has anything to do with instant photography. Polarizers rather than pictures would define the first two decades of lands intellectual life and would establish his company. Instant photos were an idea that came later on, a secondary business around which his company was completely recreated.— “Missionaries make better products.” —Jeff Bezos— His letter to shareholders gradually became a particularly dramatic showcase for his language and his thinking. These letters-really more like personal mission statements-are thoughtful and compact, and just eccentric enough to be completely engaging. Instead of discussing earnings and growth they laid out Land's World inviting everyone to join.— Land gave him a four-word job description: "Keeper of the language.”— No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration. — My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins (Founders #170)— The leap to Polaroid was like replacing a messenger on horseback with your first telephone.— Hire a paid critic:Norio Ohga, who had been a vocal arts student at the Tokyo University of Arts when he saw our first audio tape recorder back in 1950. I had had my eye on him for all those years because of his bold criticism of our first machine.He was a great champion of the tape recorder, but he was severe with us because he didn't think our early machine was good enough. It had too much wow and flutter, he said. He was right, of course; our first machine was rather primitive. We invited him to be a paid critic even while he was still in school. His ideas were very challenging. He said then, "A ballet dancer needs a mirror to perfect her style, her technique.— Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita.— Another parallel to Jobs: Don't kid yourself. Polaroid is a one man company.— He argued there was no reason that well-designed, wellmade computers couldn't command the same market share and margins as a luxury automobile.A BMW might get you to where you are going in the same way as a Chevy that costs half the price, but there will always be those who will pay for the better ride in the sexier car. Rather than competing with commodity PC makers like Dell, Compaq and Gateway, why not make only first-class products with high margins so that Apple could continue to develop even better first-class products?The company could make much bigger profits from selling a $3,000 machine rather than a $500 machine, even if they sold fewer of them.Why not, then, just concentrate on making the best $3,000 machines around? — Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products by Leander Kahney.— How To Turn Down A Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story by Billy Gallagher — Books on Enzo FerrariGo Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A.J. Baime. (Founders #97) Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and The Making of an Automotive Empire by Luca Dal Monte (Founders #98) Enzo Ferrari: The Man and The Machine by Brock Yates (Founders #220) — Soul in the game. Listen to how Edwin Land describes his product:We would not have known and have only just learned that a new kind of relationship between people in groups is brought into being by SX-70 when the members of a group are photographing and being photographed and sharing the photographs: it turns out that buried within us—there is latent interest in each other; there is tenderness, curiosity, excitement, affection, companionability and humor; it turns out, in this cold world where man grows distant from man,and even lovers can reach each other only briefly, that we have a yen for and a primordial competence for a quiet good-humored delight in each other:we have a prehistoric tribal competence for a non-physical, non-emotional, non-sexual satisfaction in being partners in the lonely exploration of a once empty planet.—  “Over the very long term, history shows that the chances of any business surviving in a manner agreeable to a company's owners are slim at best.” —Charlie Munger----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast 

What I learned from rereading Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. ----Ramp gives you everything you need to control spend, watch your costs, and optimize your financial operations —all on a single platform. Make history's greatest entrepreneurs proud by going to Ramp and learning how they can help your business control your costs and save more. ----Founders Notes gives you the superpower to learn from history's greatest entrepreneurs on demand. You can search all my notes and highlights from every book I've ever read for the podcast. Get access to Founders Notes here. ----Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book----Episode Outline: — The most obvious parallel is to Apple Computer. Both companies specialized in relentless, obsessive refinement of their technologies. Both were established close to great research universities to attract talent. Both fetishized superior, elegant, covetable product design. And both companies exploded in size and wealth under an in-house visionary-godhead-inventor-genius. At Apple, that man was Steve Jobs. At Polaroid, the genius was Edwin Land. Just as Apple stories almost all lead back to Jobs, Polaroid lore always seems to focus on Land.— Both men were college dropouts; both became as rich as anyone could ever wish to be; and both insisted that their inventions would change the fundamental nature of human interaction.— Jobs expressed his deep admiration for Edwin Land. He called him a national treasure.— Books on Edwin Land:Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263)A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134)Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133)The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker (Founders #132)Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid(Founders #40)— Biography about Steve Jobs: Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli— Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science. I like that intersection. There's something magical about that place. There are a lot of people innovating, and that's not the main distinction of my career. The reason Apple resonates with people is that there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar, in that they both have a  desire to express themselves. In fact some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side. In the seventies computers became a way for people to express their creativity. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also great at science. Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor. —  Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson (Founders #214)— Book on Henry Ford:I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford by Richard Snow (Founders #9)The Autobiography of Henry Ford by Henry Ford (Founders #26) Today and Tomorrow Henry Ford (Founders #80) My Forty Years With Ford by Charles Sorensen  (Founders #118)The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten Year Road Trip by Jeff Guinn (Founders #190) — Another parallel to Jobs: Land's control over his company was nearly absolute, and he exercised it to a degree that was compelling and sometimes exhausting.— When you read a biography of Edwin land you see an incredibly smart, gifted, driven, focused person endure decade after decade of struggle. And more importantly —finally work his way through.— Another parallel to Jobs: You may be noticing that none of this has anything to do with instant photography. Polarizers rather than pictures would define the first two decades of lands intellectual life and would establish his company. Instant photos were an idea that came later on, a secondary business around which his company was completely recreated.— “Missionaries make better products.” —Jeff Bezos— His letter to shareholders gradually became a particularly dramatic showcase for his language and his thinking. These letters-really more like personal mission statements-are thoughtful and compact, and just eccentric enough to be completely engaging. Instead of discussing earnings and growth they laid out Land's World inviting everyone to join.— Land gave him a four-word job description: "Keeper of the language.”— No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration. — My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins (Founders #170)— The leap to Polaroid was like replacing a messenger on horseback with your first telephone.— Hire a paid critic:Norio Ohga, who had been a vocal arts student at the Tokyo University of Arts when he saw our first audio tape recorder back in 1950. I had had my eye on him for all those years because of his bold criticism of our first machine.He was a great champion of the tape recorder, but he was severe with us because he didn't think our early machine was good enough. It had too much wow and flutter, he said. He was right, of course; our first machine was rather primitive. We invited him to be a paid critic even while he was still in school. His ideas were very challenging. He said then, "A ballet dancer needs a mirror to perfect her style, her technique.— Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita.— Another parallel to Jobs: Don't kid yourself. Polaroid is a one man company.— He argued there was no reason that well-designed, wellmade computers couldn't command the same market share and margins as a luxury automobile.A BMW might get you to where you are going in the same way as a Chevy that costs half the price, but there will always be those who will pay for the better ride in the sexier car. Rather than competing with commodity PC makers like Dell, Compaq and Gateway, why not make only first-class products with high margins so that Apple could continue to develop even better first-class products?The company could make much bigger profits from selling a $3,000 machine rather than a $500 machine, even if they sold fewer of them.Why not, then, just concentrate on making the best $3,000 machines around? — Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products by Leander Kahney.— How To Turn Down A Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story by Billy Gallagher — Books on Enzo FerrariGo Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A.J. Baime. (Founders #97) Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and The Making of an Automotive Empire by Luca Dal Monte (Founders #98) Enzo Ferrari: The Man and The Machine by Brock Yates (Founders #220) — Soul in the game. Listen to how Edwin Land describes his product:We would not have known and have only just learned that a new kind of relationship between people in groups is brought into being by SX-70 when the members of a group are photographing and being photographed and sharing the photographs: it turns out that buried within us—there is latent interest in each other; there is tenderness, curiosity, excitement, affection, companionability and humor; it turns out, in this cold world where man grows distant from man,and even lovers can reach each other only briefly, that we have a yen for and a primordial competence for a quiet good-humored delight in each other:we have a prehistoric tribal competence for a non-physical, non-emotional, non-sexual satisfaction in being partners in the lonely exploration of a once empty planet.—  “Over the very long term, history shows that the chances of any business surviving in a manner agreeable to a company's owners are slim at best.” —Charlie Munger----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast 

Edwin Land unveiled the world's first instant camera to the Optical Society of America on 21st February, 1947. Snapping a quick black-and-white selfie, Land astonished onlookers as the image emerged within 60 seconds. Despite its initial high price and complex development process, Polaroid cameras became a sensation, selling out on their first day of release in 1948.  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Land's inspiration came during a family vacation; consider why Steve Jobs and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have looked to Land for inspiration ever since; and recall Polaroid's disastrous pivot into ‘instant movies', Polavision, in 1977… Further Reading: • ‘Inside the company that gave the world instant photography' (FT, 2017): https://www.ft.com/content/d76d5f44-5088-11e7-bfb8-997009366969 • ‘Instant - The Story of Polaroid, By Christopher Bonanos' (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012): https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Instant/VgyuGmMZ7iIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Instant:+A+Cultural+History+of+Polaroid+by+Christopher+Bonanos&printsec=frontcover • ‘Apple & Polaroid's Intertwined Legacy' (In An Instant, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOzdMkMMpR0 Love the show? Join

What I learned from reading The Bugatti Story by L'Ebe Bugatti.---I use EightSleep to get the best sleep of my life. Find out why EightSleep is loved by founders everywhere and get $150 off at eightsleep.com/founders/---Vesto makes it easy for you to invest your businesses idle cash. Schedule a demo with Vesto's founder Ben and tell him David from Founders sent you. Here's the legal disclosures to make the lawyers happy:Vesto Advisors, LLC (“Vesto”) is an SEC registered investment adviser. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or training. More information about Vesto and our partnership can be found here We are entitled to compensation for promoting Vesto Advisors, LLC. Accordingly, we have an incentive to endorse Vesto and its team and services. We are not current advisory clients of the Vesto.---Join Founders AMAMembers of Founders AMA can:-Email me your questions directly (you get a private email address in the confirmation email) -Promote your company to other members by including a link to your website with you question -Unlock 34 Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes immediately-Listen to new Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes every week ---Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book---(2:01) If there was a prototype operation for what Enzo Ferrari envisioned it had to be what the legendary Ettore Bugatti built in Molsheim. — Enzo Ferrari: The Man and the Machine by Brock Yates. (Founders #220)(7:00) Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A. J. Baime. (Founders #97)(14:30) I determined to build a car of my own. I had realized by then that I was completely taken by mechanics. My ideas gave me no rest.(16:00) The two inventors described to each other a singular experience: Each had imagined a perfect new product, whole, already manufactured and sitting before him, and then spent years prodding executives, engineers, and factories to create it with as few compromises as possible. — Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. (Founders #264)(22:00) Faster progress would be made in all fields if conceit did not cause us to forget or disdain the work done by others before us. There is a tendency to believe that nothing worthy of note has been done in the past, and this has an unfortunate bearing on our judgment; thus the present trend toward mediocrity.(23:45) I was hypnotized, drawn more and more to the mechanics of motors. These exciting problems had me completely under their sway, and so began for me the hard uphill task, the thankless labor of constructing and destroying and beginning again, without a break or rest,  and for days, months, years even, until success finally rewarded all my efforts.(27:00) Bugatti made no attempt to compete with the low price models already on the market. The price of the Bugatti was higher than any other car of equal horsepower.(37:00) Bugatti is the personification of Paul Graham's essay How To Do Great Work(Founders #314)-Work on what you have a natural aptitude for and a deep curiosity about.-Make a commitment to be the best in the world at what you do.-Care deeply about making truly great work.(42:00) All the finest trophies were won easily by engaging in every important race without pause.(44:00) Nothing is too good. Nothing is too dear. You've got to win whatever the cost. You work day and night if necessary.(44:30) There was a factory. However Molsheim was more than that. It was a house and a family. It was a little world where the attitude to things and the relations between people were out of the ordinary.(45:30) The personality of its founder continued to show in even the smallest details and unexpected ways.(46:00) You get the feeling of being suddenly confronted with something unusual and beyond classification.(49:30) His starting point was always to create the most extraordinary things.(50:30) Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #300)(52:00) The root principle was to do things your way. It didn't matter how other people did it. As long as it works and it is exciting people will follow you.(58:30) A human life, by its very nature, has to be devoted to something or other, to a glorious or humble enterprise, an illustrious or obscure destiny. This is a strange but inexorable condition of things. — The Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset----Join Founders AMAMembers of Founders AMA can:-Email me your questions directly (you get a private email address in the confirmation email) -Promote your company to other members by including a link to your website with you question -Unlock 34 Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes immediately-Listen to new Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes every week ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

Queens: the city's largest and most diverse borough. It's home to the Noguchi Museum, Queens Night Market, Louis Armstrong House and much more. To give us a rundown on some summer activities to do in the borough is Christopher Bonanos, city editor of New York Magazine. Plus, we take your calls!  *This segment is guest-hosted by Brigid Bergin. 

What I learned from reading Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words.This episode is brought to you by Tiny: Tiny is the easiest way to sell your business. Tiny provides quick and straightforward exits for Founders.  ----This episode is brought to you by Meter: Meter is the easiest way for your business to get fast, secure, and reliable internet and WiFi in any commercial space. Go to meter.com/founders ----Follow one of my favorite podcasts Invest Like The Best and listen to episode 293 David Senra: Passion and Pain ----[3:48] He gave an extraordinary amount of thought to how best to use our fleeting time.[4:24] He imagined what reality lacked and set out to remedy it.[7:27] Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview Video and My Notes.[10:02] Edwin Land episodes:Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. (Founders #264)Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263)A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134)Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133)The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experienceby Mark Olshaker (Founders #132)Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid(Founders #40)[13:23] Think of your life as a rainbow arcing across the horizon of this world. You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear.[14:10] One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization by Dee Hock. (Founders #260)[15:42] Read Jeff Bezos's shareholder letters in book form: Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos or for free online: Amazon Investor Relations(Founders #282)[19:45] If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. — Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman by Yvon Chouinard. (Founders #297)[30:47] How important product is based on how much time you spend with it: People are going to be spending two, three hours a day interacting with these machines—longer than they spend in the car.[39:02] Return to the Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and the Creation of Appleby Michael Moritz. (Founders #76)[40:32] The real big thing is: if you're going to make something, it doesn't take any more energy—and rarely does it take more money—to make it really great. All it takes is a little more time. And a willingness to do so, a willingness to persevere until it's really great.[45:07] Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull [45:31] Steve's enthusiasm kept him writing check after check to Pixar, ultimately investing some $60 million.[47:47] It is better to have fewer people even if it means doing less. Let's build our company slowly and carefully.[53:36] I'm not so dominant that I can't listen to creative ideas coming from other people. Successful people listen. Those who don't listen, don't survive long. — Driven From Within by Michael Jordan (Founders #213)[54:40] You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times in the process of getting there.[1:00:11] There wasn't a hierarchy of ideas that mapped onto the hierarchy of the organization.[1:03:33] Don't be a career. The enemy of most dreams and intuitions, and one of the most dangerous and stifling concepts ever invented by humans, is the “Career.” A career is a concept for how one is supposed to progress through stages during the training for and practicing of your working life. There are some big problems here. First and foremost is the notion that your work is different and separate from the rest of your life. If you are passionate about your life and your work, this can't be so. They will become more or less one. This is a much better way to live one's life.[1:05:11] Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.[1:05:58] Think of your life as a rainbow arcing across the horizon of this world. You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear.[1:09:27] In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations With the Visionaries of the Digital World by Rama Dev Jager and Rafael Ortiz. (Founders #208)[1:10:52] Much of it is also drive and passion—hard work makes up for a lot.[1:13:28] A risk-taking creative environment on the product side required a fiscally conservative environment on the business side.[1:13:57] You've got to choose what you put your love into really carefully.[1:14:38] A remarkably consistent set of values that Steve held dear: Life is short; don't waste it. Tell the truth. Technology should enhance human creativity. Process matters. Beauty matters. Details matter. The world we know is a human creation—and we can push it forward.[1:19:24] Steve Jobs speaking to Apple employees (Video) [1:29:48] Apple is the world's premier bridge builder between mere mortals and the exploding world of high technology.[1:30:14] Steve's favorite quote: We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle[1:32:29] The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley by Leslie Berlin. (Founders #166)[1:42:27] That's been the most important lesson I've learned in business: that the dynamic range of people dramatically exceeds things you encounter in the rest of our normal lives—and to try to find those really great people who really love what they do. [1:43:00] Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Productsby Leander Kahney. (Founders #178)[1:47:27] It's a circus world, and you never know what's around the next corner.[1:53:40] Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever. (Founders #219)[2:01:00] All glory is fleeting.----Subscribe to listen to Founders Premium — Subscribers can ask me questions directly and listen to Ask Me Anything (AMA) episodes.----Join my free email newsletter to get my top 10 highlights from every book----I use Readwise to organize and remember everything I read. You can try Readwise for 60 days for free here.  ----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

[REBROADCAST FROM APRIL 26, 2022] Little Ukraine has been a staple of the Lower East Side of Manhattan for over 100 years. While the neighborhood has far less residents with Ukrainian heritage than in the past, classic New York establishments like Veselka on 2nd Avenue and 9th Street serve as a reminder of the rich Ukrainian history in the community. Recently Christopher Bonanos, city editor for New York Magazine, wrote a cover story about the history of Little Ukraine, how much it's changed since the initial wave of Ukrainian immigrants settled in the area, and what the neighborhood means in the context of Russia's attack on Ukraine in the present day. Plus, we'll take your calls.

What I learned from reading Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century by G. Pascal Zachary.Support Founders' sponsors: Fable: Make your product accessible to more people. and Tegus is a search engine for business knowledge that's used by founders, investors, and executives. Try it for free by visiting Tegus.and Tiny: The easiest way to sell your business. Quick and straightforward exits for Founders. [7:30] Episode starts. [7:31] Acts of importance were the measure of his life and they are the reason that his life deserves study today.[8:10] Suspicious of big institutions Bush objected to the pernicious effects of an increasingly bureaucratic society and the potential for mass mediocrity.[8:20] He believed the individual was still of paramount importance."The individual to me is everything," he wrote  "I would restrict him just as little as possible."He never lost his faith in the power of one.[8:57] Pieces of the Action by Vannevar Bush (Founders #270)[9:32] Dee Hock — founder of VISA episodes:One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization by Dee Hock (Founders #260)Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 1and Autobiography of a Restless Mind: Reflections on the Human Condition Volume 2 by Dee Hock. (Founders #261)[9:55] Edwin Land episodes:Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. (Founders #264)Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263)A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134)Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133)The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experienceby Mark Olshaker (Founders #132)Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid(Founders #40)[10:00] Vannevar Bush and Edwin Land both had a profound belief in the individual capacity for greatness.[12:15] Bush came from an American line of can do engineers and tinkerers, a line beginning with Franklin, and including Eli Whitney, Alexander, Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Wright BrothersThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin. (Founders #62)Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #115)Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward Larson. (Founders #251)Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bellby Charlotte Gray. (Founders #138)Edison: A Biography by Matthew Josephson. (Founders #268)The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. (Founders #239)[13:35] The Essential Writings of Vannevar Bush by Vannevar Bush and G. Pascal Zachary[16:30] My whole philosophy is very simple. If I have any doubt as to whether I am supposed to do a job or not, I do it, and if someone socks me, I lay off.[18:00] The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach (Founders #103)[19:00] What Bush learned from reading old whaling logs I'm learning 120 years later reading biographies of founders.[19:45] Books by Sebastian Mallaby:The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future and More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite[21:20] He admired men of action, despised rules, and felt that merit meant everything.[22:32] If something is going to take two years he wants to figure out how to do it in six months or a year. This kind of the mentality he applied to everything.[24:45] Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli (Founders #265)[25:45] I lose my shit when thinking about how all these ideas connnect.[30:45] He remained susceptible to bouts of nervous tension throughout his prime years.[31:50] Advice he gave his sons: Justify the space you occupy.[32:30] Do not emulate the ostrich: For better or worse we are destined to live in a world devoted to modern science and engineering. If the road we are on is slippery, we cannot avoid a catastrophe by putting on the brakes, closing our eyes or taking our hands off the wheel. What is the sane attitude of a scientist or layman? Absence of wishful thinking. No emulation of the ostrich.[35:00] He insisted that discipline must be self applied or will be externally imposed.[33:36] He found romance in adversity and solace in hard work.[36:00] Vannevar Bush on Leonardo da Vinci and Ben Franklin[42:33]  It is being realized with a thud that the world is going to be ruled by those who know how, in the fullest sense, to apply science.[44:45] We want an inventive company rather than an orderly company.[45:38] Tolerate genius. There are very few men of genius. But we need all we can find. Almost without exception they are disagreeable. Don't destroy them. They lay golden eggs.  —Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. (Founders #89)[48:34] David Ogilvy episodes:The Unpublished David Ogilvy by David Ogilvy. (Founders #189)The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertisingby Kenneth Roman. (Founders #169)Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy. (Founders #89)Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy. (Founders #82)[49:00] Bush's personal motto: Don't let the bastards get you down.[51:50] The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb by James Kunetka. (Founders #215)[55:15] The more resourceful entrepreneurs are the ones that are going to win.[1:01:03] Enzo Ferrari story brought to you by Tegus. [1:07:04] Warren Buffett masterclass on how to differentiate your product brought to you by Tiny. —Get 60 days free of Readwise. It is the best app I pay for. I couldn't make Founders without it.—My notes on 300 podcasts and lectures on entrepreneurship—“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading Pieces of the Action by Vannevar Bush.Support Founders' sponsors: Tiny: The easiest way to sell your business. Quick and straightforward exits for Founders. andCapital: Raise, hold, and spend capital all in one place. and Tegus is a search engine for business knowledge that's used by founders, investors, and executives. It's incredible what they're building. Try it for free by visiting Tegus.[7:15] Pieces of the Action offers his hard-won lessons on how to operate and manage effectively within complex organizations and drive ambitious, unprecedented programs to fruition.[8:54] Stripe Press Books:The Dream Machine by M. Mitchell WaldropThe Making of Prince of Persia: Journals 1985-1993 by Jordan Mechner.[9:24] Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century by G. Pascal Zachary[10:40] Any exploration of the institutions that shape how we do research, generate discoveries, create inventions, and turn ideas into innovations inevitably leads back to Vannevar Bush.[11:26] No American has had greater influence in the growth of science and technology than Vannevar Bush.[12:23] That's why I'm going to encourage you to order this book —because when you pick it up and you read it —you're reading the words of an 80 year old genius. One of the most formidable and accomplished people that has ever lived— laying out what he learned over his six decade long career.[14:38] A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman (Founders #95)[15:12] Bootstrapping: Douglas Engelbart, Coevolution, and the Origins of Personal Computing by Thierry Bardini[15:48] I don't know what Silicon Valley will do when it runs out of Doug Engelbart's ideas. —  The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #157)[18:54] Bush points out that tipping points often rest with far-seeing, energetic individuals. We can be those individuals.[20:36] I went into this book with little more than a name and came out with the closest thing to a mentor someone you've never met can be.[20:58] We are not the first to face problems, and as we face them we can hold our heads high. In such spirit was this book written.[24:38] The essence of civilization is the transmission of the findings of each generation to the next.[29:00] This is not a call for optimism, it is a call for determination.[31:12] It is pleasant to turn to situations where conservatism or lethargy were overcome by farseeing, energetic individuals.[31:34] People are really a power law and that the best ones can change everything. —Sam Hinkie[33:46] There should never be, throughout an organization, any doubt as to where authority for making decisions resides, or any doubt that they will be promptly made.[34:32] You can drive great people by making the speed of decision making really slow. Why would great people stay in an organization where they can't get things done? They look around after a while, and they're, like, "Look, I love the mission, but I can't get my job done because our speed of decision making is too slow." — Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos by Jeff Bezos and Walter Isaacson.(Founders #155)[38:36] Rigid lines of authority do not produce the best innovations.[38:42] Research projects flowered in pockets all around the company, many of them without Steve's blessing or even awareness.They'd come to Steve's attention only if one of his key managers decided that the project or technology showed real potential.In that case, Steve would check it out, and the information he'd glean would go into the learning machine that was his brain. Sometimes that's where it would sit, and nothing would happen. Sometimes, on the other hand, he'd concoct a way to combine it with something else he'd seen, or perhaps to twist it in a way to benefit an entirely different project altogether.This was one of his great talents, the ability to synthesize separate developments and technologies into something previously unimaginable. —Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli (Founders #265)[40:56] He was so industrious that he became a positive annoyance to others who felt less inclined to work.  —Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power by James McGrath Morris. (Founders #135)[42:22] Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and The Secret Palace of Science That Changed The Course of World War II by Jennet Conant. (Founders #143)[45:35] If a man is a good judge of men, he can go far on that skill alone.[46:00] All the past episodes mentioned by Vannevar Bush in this book:General Leslie Groves: The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb by James Kunetka. (Founders #215)J. Robert Oppenheimer: The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb by James Kunetka. (Founders #215)Alfred Lee Loomis: Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and The Secret Palace of Science That Changed The Course of World War II by Jennet Conant. (Founders #143)J.P. Morgan: The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance by Ron Chernow. (Founders #139)The Hour of Fate: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism by Susan Berfield. (Founders #142)Orville Wright: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. (Founders #239)Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies by Lawrence Goldstone. (Founders #241)Edwin Land: Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg. (Founders #263)Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. (Founders #264)Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West by Mark Foster. (Founders #66)Professional Amateur: The Biography of Charles Franklin Kettering by Thomas Boyd (Founders #125)Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bellby Charlotte Gray. (Founders #138)[48:21] Difficulties are often encountered in bringing an invention into production and use.[48:47] An invention has some of the characteristics of a poem.It is said that a poet may derive real joy out of making a poem, even if it is never published, even if he does not recite it to his friends, even if it is not a very good poem.No doubt, one has to be a poet to understand this.In the same way, an inventor can derive real satisfaction out of making an invention, even if he never expects to make a nickel out of it, even if he knows it is a bit foolish, provided he feels it involves ingenuity and insight.An inventor invents because he cannot help it, and also because he gets quiet fun out of doing so.Sometimes he even makes money at it, but not by himself. One has to be an inventor to understand this.One evening in Dayton, I dined alone with Orville Wright.During a long evening, we discussed inventions we had made that had never amounted to anything. He took me up to the attic and showed me models of various weird gadgets.I had plenty of similar efforts to tell him about, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.Neither of us would have thus spilled things except to a fellow practitioner, one who had enjoyed the elation of creation and who knew that such elation is, to a true devotee, independent of practical results.So it is also, I understand, with poets.[51:28] Against The Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #200)[52:21] When picking an industry to enter, my favorite rule of thumb is this: Pick an industry where the founders of the industry—the founders of the important companies in the industry—are still alive and actively involved. — The Pmarca Blog Archive Ebook by Marc Andreessen. (Founders #50)[57:18] If a company operates only under patents it owns, and infringes on no others, its monopoly should not be disturbed, and the courts so hold. An excellent example is Polaroid Corporation. Founded by Edwin Land, one of the most ingenious men I ever knew (and also one of the wisest), it has grown and prospered because of his inventions and those of his team.[1:00:46] I came to the realization that they knew more about the subject than I did. In some ways, this was not strange. They were concentrating on it and I was getting involved in other things.[1:01:31] P.T. Barnum: An American Life by Robert Wilson. (Founders #137)[1:05:53] We make progress, lots of progress, in nearly every intellectual field, only to find that the more we probe, the faster our field of ignorance expands.[1:11:41] All the books from Stripe Press—Get 60 days free of Readwise. It is the best app I pay for. I couldn't make Founders without it.—“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading Edison: A Biography by Matthew Josephson.--Support Founders' sponsors: Tegus is a search engine for business knowledge that's used by founders, investors, and executives. It's incredible what they're building. Try it for free by visiting Tegus.and Sam Hinkie's unique venture capital firm 87 Capital. If i was raising money and looking for a long term partner Sam is the first person I would call. If you are the kind of founder that we study on this podcast and you are looking for a long term partner go to 87capital.comand Get 60 days free of Readwise. It is the best app I pay for. I couldn't make Founders without it.—[8:00] Podcast starts [8:26] He had known how to gather interest, faith, and hope in the success of his projects.[9:31] I think of this episode as part 5 in a 5 part series that started on episode 263:#263 Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg.#264 Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. #265 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli#266 My Life and Work by Henry Ford.[11:20] Follow your natural drift. —Charlie Munger[11:54] Warren Buffett: “Bill Gates Sr. posed the question to the table: What factor did people feel was the most important in getting to where they'd gotten in life? And I said, ‘Focus.' And Bill said the same thing.” —Focus and Finding Your Favorite Problems by Frederik Gieschen[12:46] Focus! A simple thing to say and a nearly impossible thing to do over the long term.[15:51] We have a picture of the boy receiving blow after blow and learning that there was inexplicable cruelty and pain in this world.[19:49] He is working from the time the sun rises till 10 or 11 at night. He is 11 years old.[19:58] He reads the entire library. Every book. All of them.[21:52] At this point in history the telegraph is the leading edge of communication technology in the world.[23:01] My refuge was a Detroit public library. I started with the first book on the bottom shelf and went through the lot one by one. I did not read a few books. I read the library.[23:21] Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love by Bill GurleyBlake Robbins Notes on Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You LoveGreatness isn't random. It is earned. If you're going to research something, this is your lucky day. Information is freely available on the internet — that's the good news. The bad news is that you now have zero excuse for not being the most knowledgeable in any subject you want because it's right there at your fingertips.[29:00] Why his work on the telegraph was so important to everything that happened later in his life: The germs of many ideas and stratagems perfected by him in later years were implanted in his mind when he worked at the telegraph. He described this phase of his life afterward, his mind was in a tumult, besieged by all sorts of ideas and schemes. All the future potentialities of electricity obsessed him night and day. It was then that he dared to hope that he would become an inventor.[31:29] Edison's insane schedule: Though he had worked up to an early hour of the morning at the telegraph office, Edison began reading the Experimental Researches In Electricity (Faraday's book) when he returned to his room at 4 A.M. and continued throughout the day that followed, so that he went back to his telegraph without having slept. He was filled with determination to learn all he could.[32:38] All the Thomas Edison episodes:The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented The Modern World by Randall Stross (Founders #3)Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes. (Founders #83)The Vagabonds: The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten-Year Road Tripby Jeff Guinn. (Founders #190)[32:57] Having one's own shop, working on projects of one's own choosing, making enough money today so one could do the same tomorrow: These were the modest goals of Thomas Edison when he struck out on his own as full-time inventor and manufacturer. The grand goal was nothing other than enjoying the autonomy of entrepreneur and forestalling a return to the servitude of employee. —The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented The Modern World by Randall Stross[40:54] Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, King of the Robber Barons by Edward J. Renehan Jr. (Founders #258)[48:00] It's this idea where you can identify an opportunity because you have deep knowledge about one industry and you see that there is an industry developing  parallel to the industry that you know about. Jay Gould saw the importance of the telegraph industry in part because telegraph lines were laid next to railraod tracks.[49:17] Edison describes the fights between the robber barons as strange financial warfare.[54:35] You should build a company that you actually enjoy working in.[55:47] Don't make this mistake:John Ott who served under Edison for half a century, at the end of his life described the "sacrifices" some of Edison's old co-workers had made, and he commented on their reasons for so doing."My children grew up without knowing their father," he said. "When I did get home at night, which was seldom, they were in bed.""Why did you do it?" he was asked."Because Edison made your work interesting. He made me feel that I was making something with him. I wasn't just a workman. And then in those days, we all hoped to get rich with him.”[57:26] Don't try to sell a new technology to an exisiting monopoly. Western Union was a telegraphy monopoly: He approached Western union people with the idea of reproducing and recording the human voice, but they saw no conceivable use for it![58:07] Against The Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson (Founders #200)[59:42] Passion is infectious. No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet by Molly Knight Raskin. (Founders #24)[1:01:23] For more detail on the War of the Currents listen to episode 83 Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World by Jill Jonnes.[1:03:05] From the book Empire of Light: And so it was that J. Pierpont, Morgan, whose house had been the first in New York to be wired for electricity by Edison but a decade earlier, now erased Edison's name out of corporate existence without even the courtesy of a telegram or a phone call to the great inventor.Edison biographer Matthew Josephson wrote, "To Morgan it made little difference so long as it all resulted in a big trustification for which he would be the banker."Edison had been, in the vocabulary of the times, Morganized.[1:06:03] One of Thomas Edison's favorite books: Toilers of The Sea by Victor Hugo[1:08:26] “The trouble with other inventors is that they try a few things and quit. I never quit until I get what I want.” —Thomas Edison[1:08:35] “Remember, nothing that's good works by itself. You've gotta make the damn thing work.” —Thomas Edison[1:12:04] The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana Kingby Rich Cohen. (Founders #255)[1:12:58] He (Steve Jobs) was always easy to understand.He would either approve a demo, or he would request to see something different next time.Whenever Steve reviewed a demo, he would say, often with highly detailed specificity, what he wanted to happen next.He was always trying to ensure the products were as intuitive and straightforward as possible, and he was willing to invest his own time, effort, and influence to see that they were.Through looking at demos, asking for specific changes, then reviewing the changed work again later on and giving a final approval before we could ship, Steve could make a product turn out like he wanted.— Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda (Bonus episode between Founders #110 and #111)[1:15:48] Charles Kettering is the 20th Century's Ben Franklin. — Professional Amateur: The Biography of Charles Franklin Kettering by Thomas Boyd (Founders #125)—Get 60 days free of Readwise. It is the best app I pay for. I could not make Founders without—“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from rereading Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos. [0:01] The most obvious parallel is to Apple Computer.Both companies specialized in relentless, obsessive refinement of their technologies. Both were established close to great research universities to attract talent.Both fetishized superior, elegant, covetable product design. And both companies exploded in size and wealth under an in-house visionary-godhead-inventor-genius.At Apple, that man was Steve Jobs. At Polaroid, the genius was Edwin Land.Just as Apple stories almost all lead back to Jobs, Polaroid lore always seems to focus on Land.[1:22] Both men were college dropouts; both became as rich as anyone could ever wish to be; and both insisted that their inventions would change the fundamental nature of human interaction.[1:37] Jobs expressed his deep admiration for Edwin Land. He called him a national treasure.[3:12] All the podcasts on Edwin Land:Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263)A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134)Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133)The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experience by Mark Olshaker (Founders #132)Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid (Founders #40)[4:07] Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli[5:51] Edwin Land of Polaroid talked about the intersection of the humanities and science. I like that intersection. There's something magical about that place. There are a lot of people innovating, and that's not the main distinction of my career. The reason Apple resonates with people is that there's a deep current of humanity in our innovation. I think great artists and great engineers are similar, in that they both have a  desire to express themselves. In fact some of the best people working on the original Mac were poets and musicians on the side. In the seventies computers became a way for people to express their creativity. Great artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were also great at science. Michelangelo knew a lot about how to quarry stone, not just how to be a sculptor. —  Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson (Founders #214)[7:07] All the podcasts about Henry Ford:I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford by Richard Snow (Founders #9)The Autobiography of Henry Ford by Henry Ford (Founders #26) Today and Tomorrow Henry Ford (Founders #80) My Forty Years With Ford by Charles Sorensen  (Founders #118)The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten Year Road Trip by Jeff Guinn (Founders #190) [9:16] Another parallel to Jobs: Land's control over his company was nearly absolute, and he exercised it to a degree that was compelling and sometimes exhausting.[11:43] When you read a biography of Edwin land you see an incredibly smart, gifted, driven, focused person endure decade after decade of struggle. And more importantly —finally work his way through.[13:32] Another parallel to Jobs: You may be noticing that none of this has anything to do with instant photography. Polarizers rather than pictures would define the first two decades of lands intellectual life and would establish his company. Instant photos were an idea that came later on, a secondary business around which his company was completely recreated.[14:26] “Missionaires make better products.” —Jeff Bezos[17:44] His letter to shareholders gradually became a particularly dramatic showcase for his language and his thinking. These letters-really more like personal mission statements-are thoughtful and compact, and just eccentric enough to be completely engaging. Instead of discussing earnings and growth they laid out Land's World inviting everyone to join.[18:03] Land gave him a four-word job description: "Keeper of the language.”[23:15] No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration. — My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins (Founders #170)[27:00] The leap to Polaroid was like replacing a messenger on horseback with your first telephone.[28:01] Hire a paid critic:Norio Ohga, who had been a vocal arts student at the Tokyo University of Arts when he saw our first audio tape recorder back in 1950. I had had my eye on him for all those years because of his bold criticism of our first machine.He was a great champion of the tape recorder, but he was severe with us because he didn't think our early machine was good enough. It had too much wow and flutter, he said. He was right, of course; our first machine was rather primitive. We invited him to be a paid critic even while he was still in school. His ideas were very challenging. He said then, "A ballet dancer needs a mirror to perfect her style, her technique.— Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony by Akio Morita.[32:13] Another parallel to Jobs: Don't kid yourself. Polaroid is a one man company.[33:32] He argued there was no reason that well-designed, wellmade computers couldn't command the same market share and margins as a luxury automobile.A BMW might get you to where you are going in the same way as a Chevy that costs half the price, but there will always be those who will pay for the better ride in the sexier car. Rather than competing with commodity PC makers like Dell, Compaq and Gateway, why not make only first-class products with high margins so that Apple could continue to develop even better first-class products?The company could make much bigger profits from selling a $3,000 machine rather than a $500 machine, even if they sold fewer of them.Why not, then, just concentrate on making the best $3,000 machines around? — Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products by Leander Kahney.[37:51] How To Turn Down A Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story by Billy Gallagher [45:00] All the podcasts about Enzo FerrariGo Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans by A.J. Baime. (Founders #97) Enzo Ferrari: Power, Politics, and The Making of an Automotive Empire by Luca Dal Monte (Founders #98) Enzo Ferrari: The Man and The Machine by Brock Yates (Founders #220) [45:08] Soul in the game. Listen to how Edwin Land describes his product:We would not have known and have only just learned that a new kind of relationship between people in groups is brought into being by SX-70 when the members of a group are photographing and being photographed and sharing the photographs: it turns out that buried within us—there is latent interest in each other; there is tenderness, curiosity, excitement, affection, companionability and humor; it turns out, in this cold world where man grows distant from man,and even lovers can reach each other only briefly, that we have a yen for and a primordial competence for a quiet good-humored delight in each other:we have a prehistoric tribal competence for a non-physical, non-emotional, non-sexual satisfaction in being partners in the lonely exploration of a onceempty planet.[50:31] “Over the very long term, history shows that the chances of any business surviving in a manner agreeable to a company's owners are slim at best.” —Charlie Munger----“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — GarethBe like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

Little Ukraine has been a staple of the Lower East Side of Manhattan for over 100 years. While the neighborhood has far less residents with Ukrainian heritage than in the past, classic New York establishments like Veselka on 2nd Avenue and 9th Street serve as a reminder of the rich Ukrainian history in the community. Recently Christopher Bonanos, city editor for New York Magazine, wrote a cover story about the history of Little Ukraine, how much it's changed since the initial wave of Ukrainian immigrants settled in the area, and what the neighborhood means in the context of Russia's attack on Ukraine in the present day. Plus, we'll take your calls.

Instant: The Story of Polaroid covers the rise, heyday, and decline of Polaroid Corporation. It has a particular focus on the personality and management style of Edwin Land, Polaroid's innovative and dynamic founder, who was an inspiration to Steve Jobs. Polaroid's niche in the marketplace and the strategic mistakes that led to Polaroid's decline are other major themes of the book. We were pleased to be joined by the book's author, Christopher Bonanos, for an interview about his work. Show Notes Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos via Amazon Christopher Bonanos on Twitter Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous by Christopher Bonanos via Amazon Follow us on Twitter @BusinessBooksCo and join our Amazon book club. Edited by Giacomo Guatteri Find out more at http://businessbooksandco.com

What's the best New York City-centric movie? "Breakfast at Tiffany's"? "Do the Right Thing"? "Taxi Driver"? The editors at Vulture put together their list of 101 of the best, and it's already causing some debate. New York Magazine's City Editor Christopher Bonanos makes his case for the picks, and takes listener calls about their favorites. 

Since there's only one song in the "K"s we thought we'd bring back two of our favorites and talk about Billy and the songs so far. Bringing back Christopher Bonanos from New York Magazine and whose rankings we use every single episode was a no brainer. Bringing back Family Guy Executive Producer Alec Sulkin was an easy choice as well since he's super funny and super Billy knowledgeable. A lively discussion as we await our next episode - The Stump Paul Loren phone in show.

After being completely obsessed by his 2015 New York Magazine ranking of 121 Billy Joel songs, Christopher was kind enough to join us for our first Billy Joel A to Z interview. We were absolutely dying to know why he ranked certain songs so high or vice-versa and today will provide all the answers.

Christopher Bonanos is city editor at New York magazine, where he covers arts and culture and urban affairs. He is the author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid and Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous, and he is the editor of Encyclopedia of New York by the editors of New York magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the middle of the twentieth century, a newspaper photographer who went by the name of Weegee took memorable pictures of New York City’s street life that appeared everywhere from tabloid newspapers to seminars on the history of photography. Christopher Bonanos’ book Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous (Henry Holt and Company, 2018), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, tells the story of his life from his childhood as an immigrant street kid on the Lower East Side to his years photographing murder scenes to his experiments with caricatures of celebrities. As Bonanos observes, Weegee “very early on grasped that the distinction between high culture and low culture was growing blurry.” Out of that insight he made a career and a body of work that tell us a lot about New York City, its journalism, and photography. Robert W. Snyder, professor emeritus of American Studies and Journalism at Rutgers-University-Newark and Manhattan Borough Historian, is the author of Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York and co-author of All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrants and the Making of New York. He can be reached at rwsnyder@newark.rutgers.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the middle of the twentieth century, a newspaper photographer who went by the name of Weegee took memorable pictures of New York City’s street life that appeared everywhere from tabloid newspapers to seminars on the history of photography. Christopher Bonanos’ book Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous (Henry Holt and Company, 2018), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, tells the story of his life from his childhood as an immigrant street kid on the Lower East Side to his years photographing murder scenes to his experiments with caricatures of celebrities. As Bonanos observes, Weegee “very early on grasped that the distinction between high culture and low culture was growing blurry.” Out of that insight he made a career and a body of work that tell us a lot about New York City, its journalism, and photography. Robert W. Snyder, professor emeritus of American Studies and Journalism at Rutgers-University-Newark and Manhattan Borough Historian, is the author of Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York and co-author of All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrants and the Making of New York. He can be reached at rwsnyder@newark.rutgers.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the middle of the twentieth century, a newspaper photographer who went by the name of Weegee took memorable pictures of New York City’s street life that appeared everywhere from tabloid newspapers to seminars on the history of photography. Christopher Bonanos’ book Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous (Henry Holt and Company, 2018), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, tells the story of his life from his childhood as an immigrant street kid on the Lower East Side to his years photographing murder scenes to his experiments with caricatures of celebrities. As Bonanos observes, Weegee “very early on grasped that the distinction between high culture and low culture was growing blurry.” Out of that insight he made a career and a body of work that tell us a lot about New York City, its journalism, and photography. Robert W. Snyder, professor emeritus of American Studies and Journalism at Rutgers-University-Newark and Manhattan Borough Historian, is the author of Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York and co-author of All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrants and the Making of New York. He can be reached at rwsnyder@newark.rutgers.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the middle of the twentieth century, a newspaper photographer who went by the name of Weegee took memorable pictures of New York City’s street life that appeared everywhere from tabloid newspapers to seminars on the history of photography. Christopher Bonanos’ book Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous (Henry Holt and Company, 2018), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, tells the story of his life from his childhood as an immigrant street kid on the Lower East Side to his years photographing murder scenes to his experiments with caricatures of celebrities. As Bonanos observes, Weegee “very early on grasped that the distinction between high culture and low culture was growing blurry.” Out of that insight he made a career and a body of work that tell us a lot about New York City, its journalism, and photography. Robert W. Snyder, professor emeritus of American Studies and Journalism at Rutgers-University-Newark and Manhattan Borough Historian, is the author of Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York and co-author of All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrants and the Making of New York. He can be reached at rwsnyder@newark.rutgers.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the middle of the twentieth century, a newspaper photographer who went by the name of Weegee took memorable pictures of New York City’s street life that appeared everywhere from tabloid newspapers to seminars on the history of photography. Christopher Bonanos’ book Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous (Henry Holt and Company, 2018), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, tells the story of his life from his childhood as an immigrant street kid on the Lower East Side to his years photographing murder scenes to his experiments with caricatures of celebrities. As Bonanos observes, Weegee “very early on grasped that the distinction between high culture and low culture was growing blurry.” Out of that insight he made a career and a body of work that tell us a lot about New York City, its journalism, and photography. Robert W. Snyder, professor emeritus of American Studies and Journalism at Rutgers-University-Newark and Manhattan Borough Historian, is the author of Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York and co-author of All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrants and the Making of New York. He can be reached at rwsnyder@newark.rutgers.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the middle of the twentieth century, a newspaper photographer who went by the name of Weegee took memorable pictures of New York City’s street life that appeared everywhere from tabloid newspapers to seminars on the history of photography. Christopher Bonanos’ book Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous (Henry Holt and Company, 2018), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, tells the story of his life from his childhood as an immigrant street kid on the Lower East Side to his years photographing murder scenes to his experiments with caricatures of celebrities. As Bonanos observes, Weegee “very early on grasped that the distinction between high culture and low culture was growing blurry.” Out of that insight he made a career and a body of work that tell us a lot about New York City, its journalism, and photography. Robert W. Snyder, professor emeritus of American Studies and Journalism at Rutgers-University-Newark and Manhattan Borough Historian, is the author of Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and the Promise of New York and co-author of All the Nations Under Heaven: Immigrants, Migrants and the Making of New York. He can be reached at rwsnyder@newark.rutgers.edu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You know it. You love. You hate it. You love to hate it, and vice versa. It's THE WEST WING, the show that helped set the limits of the liberal imagination for a generation. Luke works through his long and complicated relationship to Aaron Sorkin's world by subjecting Will to three seminal Season 4 episodes: "Debate Camp," "Game On," and "Election Night." PLUS: Will considers the life and legacy of the late film critic John Simon, and Luke tells horrifying tales of seeing David Brooks at a recent instalment of the Munk Debate. "The Obamanauts" by Corey Robin - https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-obamanauts "How Liberals Fell in Love with The West Wing" by Luke Savage - https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/04/how-liberals-fell-in-love-with-the-west-wing "On John Simon" by Christopher Bonanos - https://www.vulture.com/2019/11/obituary-critic-john-simon-1925-2019.html

On this edition of The Weekly Reader, we feature three winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards. ----Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous,---- by Christopher Bonanos, ----Feel Free,---- by Zadie Smith, and ----The Crossing,---- by Ada Limon. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christopher Bonanos is city editor at New York magazine, where he covers arts and culture and urban affairs. He is the author of Instant: The Story of Polaroid. He talks to us about his new book, Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous.

From the publisher: Arthur Fellig’s ability to arrive at a crime scene just as the cops did was so uncanny that he renamed himself “Weegee,” claiming that he functioned as a human Ouija board. Weegee documented better than any other photographer the crime, grit, and complex humanity of midcentury New York City. In Flash, we get a portrait not only of the man (both flawed and deeply talented, with generous appetites for publicity, women, and hot pastrami) but also of the fascinating time and place that he occupied. From self-taught immigrant kid to newshound to art-world darling to latter-day caricature―moving from the dangerous streets of New York City to the celebrity culture of Los Angeles and then to Europe for a quixotic late phase of experimental photography and filmmaking―Weegee lived a life just as worthy of documentation as the scenes he captured. With Flash, we have an unprecedented and ultimately moving view of the man now regarded as an innovator and a pioneer, an artist as well as a newsman, whose photographs are among most powerful images of urban existence ever made. Martin’s interview with Christopher Bonanos was recorded on July 17, 2018.

November 19, 2018 - Our time machine hauls out the big, bulky Speed Graphic camera and watches the ultimate watcher of watchers in 1930s, '40s and '50s New York City: Arthur Fellig. Helping haul the tripod around to various crime scenes and disasters is Christopher Bonanos who brings us Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous. Even if you don’t know the name, you've seen his gritty images from the 1930s through '50s. It's an incredible body of work produced by a photographer who hammed up claims of an uncanny ability to show up at a crime scene just as the cops did -- a human Ouija board. Christopher Bonanos is city editor at New York magazine where he covers arts and culture and urban affairs. His previous book is Instant: The Story of Polaroid. Follow him on Twitter @HeyBonanos and @PolaroidLand on Instagram.        

Sharnelle has the disturbing story of a woman who woke up in refrigerated storage in the morgue. Can you bury a body in your backyard? Dee Dee looks whether a do-it-yourself burial is legal, and where you’re allowed to sprinkle cremated remains of your loved ones . Photographer Arthur Fellig’s ability to arrive at a crime scene in New York in the 1930’s and 40’s just as the cops did was so uncanny that he renamed himself “Weegee,” claiming that he functioned as a human Ouija board. Weegee was famous for his graphic photos of dead bodies, as well as the city itself. The girls talk to Christopher Bonanos, author of book Flash: The Making of Weegee The Famous, about the man now regarded as an innovator and a pioneer, an artist as well as a newsman, whose photographs are among most powerful images of urban existence ever made.

Steve is joined by Christopher Bonanos, author of Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous to discuss the photographic great who documented what went on in the naked city, the nighttime New York of the 1930s and 40s, after the ballplayers had put their gloves away for the day. Plus, Tom Seaver is traded as the ‘70s Mets force a big-market team into a small-market suit, and a Dodgers fan gets ribbed with fatal results.TABLE OF CONTENTSMets Get Small*Toxic Dodgers Fandom and twin .45s*Christopher Bonanos: Who was Weegee?*“Balcony Seats at a Murder”*The wild New York of the 1930s*The brief, wondrous life of PM*Why doesn’t center-left media thrive?*Photographs that comment on themselves*Social justice Weegee/Misogynistic Weegee*His slow rise and rapid fall*“What success does for a man”*Descent into distortions*“The Critic” (Truthful without being factual)*Darkroom in the trunk?*George Selkirk Signs!*“Their First Murder”*Carrier pigeons at Ebbets Field*Goodbyes.The Infinite Inning is not only about baseball but a state of mind. Steven Goldman, rotating cohosts Jesse Spector, Cliff Corcoran, and David Roth, and occasional guests discuss the game’s present, past, and future with forays outside the foul lines to the culture at large. Expect stats, anecdotes, digressions, explorations of writing and fandom, and more Casey Stengel quotations than you thought possible. Along the way, they’ll try to solve the puzzle that is the Infinite Inning: How do you find the joy in life when you can’t get anybody out?