American Innovations
Episodes
Listen Now: American Scandal | The West Memphis Three
01 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys were brutally murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. The tiny local police department launches an investigation but...
Listen Now: Business Wars | The Race to Ozempic
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Business is war. Sometimes the prize is your wallet or your attention. Sometimes, it’s just the fun of beating the other guy. The outcome of these b...
Listen Now: American History Tellers | The Mayflower
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Cold War, Prohibition, the Gold Rush, the Space Race. Every part of your life - the words you speak, the ideas you share - can be traced to our hi...
The Mystery of Stuxnet | Cracking the Code | S57-E1
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 2010, a mysterious computer virus called Stuxnet lands on the desk of Symantec cybersecurity analyst Liam O’Murchu. Stuxnet is unli...
Man with No Memory | The Accident | S55-E1
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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....
Predator Drone | From Albatross to Amber | S54-E1
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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? I...
Pushing Painkillers | An Untapped Market | S53-E1
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Social Media | Find Your Friends | S51-E1
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 tec...
Fracking | The Source Rock | S50-E1
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Cryonics | Immortality On Ice | S48-E1
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Not everyone chooses burial or cremation after death. Some believe in cryonics, freezing their bodies in the hopes of being reanimated sometime i...
Storm Chasers | Tornado Alley | S47-E1
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
No extreme weather phenomenon fascinates us more than tornadoes. For most of human history, very little was known about how these graceful yet violent...
Hacking | What’s in the Blue Box? | S46-E1
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Hackers: the criminals who prey on our digital lives. Today they steal credit cards and personal information, or even commit acts of cyber-terrorism. ...
Breaking The Sound Barrier | A Bullet With Wings | S45-E1
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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, ...
Lie Detector | The Heart of a Liar | S43-E1
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Humans are shockingly bad at telling whether or not someone is lying. That’s why, a century ago, psychologists and criminologists developed machines...
Mission To Mars | Seeing Red | S42-E1
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
Year In Review | When Will I Get the Vaccine? | S40-E1
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 innova...
Telephone | Call Waiting | S39-E1
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the 19th Century, the telegraph is the cutting edge of communication. No one can imagine anything better—except Alexander Graham Bell.You can bin...
Auto-Tune: From Cher to Kanye | S38-E1
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 m...
The Fight Against AIDS | The Epidemic Begins | S37-E1
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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 ha...
Keeping Cool | A Chilly Reception | S35-E1
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Muggy. Sticky. Miserable. For eons, that’s just what summer was. In fact, when air conditioning first became available, few people took advanta...
Video Games | Electric Dreams | S34-E1
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Call of Duty, Fortnite, Animal Crossing.... The video game industry generates billions of dollars each year. But not so long ago, video games were mos...
Radar | Welcome to Tuxedo Park | S33-E1
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
Ferris Wheel | Wheel in the Sky | S31-E1
28 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The 1889 World’s Fair in Paris dazzles attendees with the Eiffel Tower. So, when plans begin for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, the mandate is ...
Enemy of All Mankind | A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt | S30-E1
21 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On September 11th, 1695, two ships confronted each other in the middle of the Indian Ocean: one an enormous treasure ship owned by the Grand Mughal of...
Chewing Gum: Snapping and Stretching | S29-E1
07 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the mid-1800s and in Maine, John Bacon Curtis is back from clearing the spruce forests with a crazy idea. He’s going to sell ready-to-chew gu...
Dynamite: The Controlled Explosion | S28-E1
02 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 1846, an Italian chemist discovered the volatile compound nitroglycerine, the first major breakthrough in creating man-made explosions since the in...
Fighting Coronavirus: Bruce Gellin On How COVID-19 Could Change Vaccine Development | S27-E1
26 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As the first in a series on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, Steven Johnson speaks with Dr. Bruce Gellin, president of Global Immunization at the Sabin...
Organ Transplant: The Kidney Twins | S26-E1
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A century ago, organ transplants were the stuff of science fiction. But a handful of experimental surgeons believed that transplants were not just pos...
Valium: Miltown Magic | S25-E1
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Anxiety. It’s something everyone experiences at some point in their lives, but for centuries doctors had no effective way to treat it. They could se...
Electronic Television: The Picture Radio | S24-E1
16 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The invention of the electronic television was uniquely complicated for its time. So complicated, in fact, that the prevailing narrative is that it co...
Kodak Roll Film: As Convenient as a Pencil | S23-E1
28 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today, if we want to take a photo, we unlock our phone, aim, and click. It can be done on a whim, without a second thought. We document everythin...
The Modern Ambulance | S22-E1
21 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today, if you or someone you know experiences a medical emergency, you dial 9-1-1 and a squad of trained medical professionals arrives at your door.&n...
Electric Chair | War of the Currents | S21-E1
17 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On August 6, 1890, a prisoner named William Kemmler became the first man executed in the electric chair. It was designed to be a more humane form of e...
Skylab: NASA’s Best-Kept Secret| Apollo’s Leftovers | S20-E1
26 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Fifty years ago, America’s space program achieved its greatest triumph, when Apollo Eleven put the first men on the moon.The Apollo program was a re...
Corn Flakes | The Brothers of Battle Creek | S19-E1
22 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For the first 150 years of American history, American citizens were plagued by gastrointestinal issues. Diarrhea, gastritis and dysentery were pretty ...
The Heimlich Maneuver | S18-E1
15 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1960s, choking was a national epidemic. In the United States alone, close to 4,000 people were dying from choking every year. Lobster, ham...
Innovation Fails: DeLorean | Driven to Succeed | S17-E1
25 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Normally on American Innovations, we look at the history of the science and technology that transformed the world we live in. These stories teach us a...
The Birth Control Pill | But Can It Be Done? | S16-E1
13 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When Margaret Sanger opened her birth control clinic in 1916, she knew she was breaking the law. Distributing contraceptives, or even literature about...
Star Wars' Cinema Technology | 6842 Valjean Ave | S15-E1
16 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When STAR WARS debuted in May 1977, it gave rise to a pop-cultural phenomenon unlike any the world had ever seen. The movie was so singular and iconic...
Airplane | The Flight of the June Bug | S14-E1
18 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Think for a moment about some of the pioneering developments from the earliest days of American aviation: The first pilot’s licence; the first fligh...
XX Factor | The Woman Who Put Man on the Moon | S13-E1
14 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are preparing to land on the Moon. The whole world is watching live on television. But something is very wro...
Coca-Cola: The Cocaine Clinician | S12-E1
21 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of the Civil War, Atlanta emerged as both the cultural capital of the New South, and the epicenter of its snake oil trade. A shell-shocked...
Rubber: The Miracle Material | Bouncing Ideas | S11-E1
31 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You can binge all episodes of American Innovations exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Find Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple PodcastsIn a worl...
Virtual Reality I The Sword of Damocles | S7-E1
13 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You can binge all episodes of American Innovations exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Find Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple PodcastsIn the 19...
Conquering Pain | The Frolic | S5-E1
15 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, Americans resigned themselves to gritting their teeth through the agony of surgery. And then along came an eminent surgeon, a charming sw...
Preventing Paralysis | Marching Towards a Cure | S4-E1
18 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You can binge all episodes of American Innovations exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Find Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple PodcastsBy the mi...
Thinking Machines | Artificial Intelligence | S3-E1
30 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial Intelligence is no longer the stuff of science fiction. And it’s about to get much more powerful: machines that can reason, create, ...
Nuclear Energy | E = MC Squared | S2-E1
14 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You can binge all episodes of American Innovations exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Find Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple PodcastsIn 1958, ...
Where Are Past Seasons?
10 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hey American Innovations listeners! You might be wondering what happened to some of our older seasons. We’ve moved them to our new premium serv...
Life's Building Blocks | Lost Pioneers | S1-E1
10 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 2000, President Bill Clinton held a press conference to share a milestone for humanity. He said, “we will all see the unbelievable capacity to be...
Introducing: American Innovations
26 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
DNA science. Artificial intelligence. Smartphones and 3D printers. Science and technology have transformed the world we live in. But how did we get he...