History of Technology
293 episodes · Page 5 of 13
#4650: How Apache Became the Backbone of Modern Infrastructure
From a patchy web server to 320+ projects — how a volunteer non-profit became the default home for the software running the modern economy.
#4647: How GitHub Made Open Source the Default
Before the pull request, contributing to open source meant emailing a patch and hoping. How GitHub changed everything.
#4641: Mozilla's Hidden Projects: Beyond the Browser
Mozilla is more than just Firefox. Discover Common Voice, Monitor, Thunderbird, and Rust — the public infrastructure projects shaping the open web.
#4625: How Connecticut's Puritan DNA Drives Its Innovation
Why a state with blue laws until 2012 also birthed the helicopter, the submarine, and modern sex therapy.
#4595: Charging Mountains: Inside the Aetherius Society
A London taxi driver founded a UFO religion where mountains are spiritual batteries. Here's how it works.
#4563: Unarmed Police: Noble Relic or Risky Model?
Fewer than a dozen countries still send beat cops out unarmed. Is that a noble ideal or an unfair risk?
#4550: Inside the City-Sized Employer: What 1.6M Workers Feels Like
Who's the largest employer in history? And what's it actually like to be one of 1.6 million employees?
#4537: Unboxing the Warehouse: From Joseph's Silos to Slotting Algorithms
From Roman FIFO granaries to gravity flow racks — the unglamorous engineering that keeps civilization fed.
#4532: Bugle Basics: Mastering Military Calls at Home
No valves, no keys—just five notes. Here's how to buy, learn, and deploy a bugle for domestic order.
#4516: Weaponizing Time: The Filibuster as Democracy's Strangest Hack
From ancient Rome to the US Senate to the Knesset — how endless talking became a political weapon.
#4508: How Concrete Conquered Stone
Roman concrete self-healed for 2,000 years. So why did stone lose out?
#4485: How to Start an Architecture Movement That Actually Works
Recovering lost design technology — Art Deco, Jerusalem stone, and building a new architectural style from the ground up.
#4440: Before Denim: The Terrible Trousers That Rivets Killed
Before 1873, workers wore trousers that rotted, unraveled, or sandpapered their legs. Then a Nevada tailor fixed it with a copper rivet.
#4437: How Toyota and Motorola Cracked Process Innovation
The real story behind Toyota Production System and Six Sigma — born from crisis, not philosophy.
#4421: The Doublet Changed My Posture
Which pre-industrial garments actually change how you move and how others treat you? The doublet wins.
#4402: From One Flatbed to Jerusalem: The Poppleberry Story
How a Connecticut moving company went from hauling dairy equipment to apartment moves in Jerusalem.
#4390: Rethinking Meal Schedules: A Historical Remix
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner aren't laws of nature—they're a 180-year-old factory habit. Explore pre-modern eating patterns you can actually use.
#4322: Storrs Secrets: Turbines, Duckpin, and Puppets
A working 1860s turbine, duckpin bowling’s impossible perfect game, and a world-class puppet museum in one small town.
#4311: How Your ATM Counts Cash in Milliseconds
The forgotten miracle of the deposit ATM — optical, magnetic, and ultrasonic sensors reading every note in milliseconds.
#4249: Gender Diversity Across Millennia
Exploring transgender history across cultures and the politics of gender confirmation care.
#4248: How Libertarianism Found Its Label and Its Fault Lines
The surprising leftist origins of "libertarian" and the Hayek-Rothbard split that still defines the movement.
#4245: How Conservatives Actually Innovate
Discovery vs. design: How Burke, Hayek, and Oakeshott built a theory of progress without central planning.
#4235: What Actually Unites Global Conservatism?
Burkean roots, wildly different branches — how one political label produces opposite policies worldwide.
#4214: How Homing Pigeons Still Beat Modern Tech
Pigeons flew through war zones for centuries — and some are still on the job today.