American Innovations

LISTEN NOW: The First Wife

Many listened to the Dirty John podcast, which introduced the world to John Meehan, a dangerous serial predator who infiltrates the life of Debra Newell and ultimately di

The Mystery of Stuxnet | Cracking the Code | S47-E1

In the summer of 2010, a mysterious computer virus called Stuxnet lands on the desk of Symantec cybersecurity analyst Liam O’Murchu. Stuxnet is unlike anything O’Murchu h

Man with No Memory | The Accident | S46-E1

Even as recently as the early 1950s, we didn’t understand that there were different types of memory, or how the brain processed and stored memories. Then, in 1953, a radi

Predator Drone | From Albatross to Amber | S45-E1

What if you could design a spy plane that could be flown remotely and hover in the sky for hours, providing reconnaissance for troops on the ground? In the early 1980s, t

Pushing Painkillers | An Untapped Market | S44-E1

Doctors once shied away from using opioids to treat chronic pain, citing the risk of addiction. But in the 1970s, a new generation of doctors started to argue that opioid

Social Media | Find Your Friends | S43-E1

Today social media is such a dominant part of our daily lives, it's hard to believe that only 20 years ago, it didn’t exist. Then a newly single tech entrepreneur named J

Fracking | The Source Rock | S42-E1

In the late 1970s, oil and natural gas fields across the U.S. were drying up, making the country increasingly dependent on foreign oil. Then, a Texas energy magnate named

Cryonics | Immortality On Ice | S41-E1

Not everyone chooses burial or cremation after death. Some believe in cryonics, freezing their bodies in the hopes of being reanimated sometime in the future. Bob Nelson,

Storm Chasers | Tornado Alley | S40-E1

No extreme weather phenomenon fascinates us more than tornadoes. For most of human history, very little was known about how these graceful yet violent columns of swirling

Hacking | What’s in the Blue Box? | S39-E1

Hackers: the criminals who prey on our digital lives. Today they steal credit cards and personal information, or even commit acts of cyber-terrorism. But in the early day

Breaking The Sound Barrier | A Bullet With Wings | S38-E1

In the 1940s, as planes got faster, it seemed like they were hitting a wall -- literally. Many pilots tried to travel faster than the speed of sound, often with fatal res

Lie Detector | The Heart of a Liar | S37-E1

Humans are shockingly bad at telling whether or not someone is lying. That’s why, a century ago, psychologists and criminologists developed machines to detect lies for us

Mission To Mars | Seeing Red | S36-E1

Even after the Apollo program put astronauts on the moon, Mars remained out of reach. Then, in 1990, an ambitious engineer hatched an ingenious plan to send the first hum

Year In Review | When Will I Get the Vaccine? | S35-E1

2020 has been a year of struggle, uncertainty and loss. It has also forced us to adapt and innovate in nearly every aspect of our lives. But no innovation this year has b

Telephone | Call Waiting | S34-E1

In the 19th Century, the telegraph is the cutting edge of communication. No one can imagine anything better—except Alexander Graham Bell. You can binge all episodes of A

Auto-Tune: From Cher to Kanye | S33-E1

All Andy Hildebrand wanted to do was make a computer program to help singers sound better. He never expected it to kick off a battle for the soul of modern music. You ca

The Fight Against AIDS | The Epidemic Begins | S32-E1

In the early 1980s, a mysterious new disease spread like wildfire through the gay communities of major U.S. cities. Before it even had a name, AIDS had already killed ove

Keeping Cool | A Chilly Reception | S31-E1

Muggy. Sticky. Miserable.  For eons, that’s just what summer was. In fact, when air conditioning first became available, few people took advantage of it. Wasn’t summer s

Video Games | Electric Dreams | S30-E1

Call of Duty, Fortnite, Animal Crossing.... The video game industry generates billions of dollars each year. But not so long ago, video games were mostly played by the pr

Radar | Welcome to Tuxedo Park | S29-E1

What technology won WWII? Most people would say the atomic bomb, but the real answer is radar. As a small island country, vulnerable to aerial attacks, England took the