Phone Phreaking: The Cereal Box Whistle That Hacked Ma Bell
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In 1957 a blind seven-year-old with perfect pitch named Joe Engressia found that whistling a cer...
8 Loka 23min
The Breakup of AT&T: How Ma Bell Split Apart and Grew Back Together
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Before 1984 the Bell System controlled American communications from end to end. AT&T ran long di...
8 Loka 25min
Super Glue's Accidental Origin: Harry Coover's Failed Wartime Plastic
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In 1942 Harry Coover Jr. led a team trying to make clear plastic for military gun sights. One co...
8 Loka 24min
Deidre LaCarte and the Hampster Dance: A Sibling Bet Gone Viral
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In 1997 Deidre LaCarte was an art student at Malaspina University College in Nanaimo, British Co...
8 Loka 20min
Apple's 1984 Super Bowl Ad: The Commercial the Board Tried to Kill
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Apple's Macintosh commercial aired nationally exactly once, during the third quarter of Super Bo...
8 Loka 22min
The CueCat: How $185 Million Vanished on a Cat-Shaped Barcode Scanner
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In 2000, subscribers to Forbes and Wired opened their mailboxes to find a plastic barcode scanne...
8 Loka 21min
Ariane 5 Flight 501: The $370 Million Rocket Killed by One Number
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!On June 4, 1996, the European Space Agency's new Ariane 5 lifted off from Kourou carrying the fo...
8 Loka 24min
Teflon: The Accidental Discovery Behind Nonstick Pans and PFAS
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In 1938 a chemist named Roy J. Plunkett opened the valve on a cylinder of tetrafluoroethylene ga...
8 Loka 24min
