How to Change the World: The History of Innovation - podcast cover

How to Change the World: The History of Innovation

How To Change The Worldshows.acast.com

If you want to change the world, you need to dissect the past to build a blueprint for tomorrow.


Follow the epic journey through the history of invention, science and technology - told in chronological order.


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Long before the rise of Empires,

before the invention of the written word

and before humans ever tamed fire.

Curiosity was shaping the fate of our species.


This podcast breaks down the messy, complicated, often accidental ways humanity pushes forward—and shows you exactly how you can do the same.


This isn’t surface-level history.


Starting at the dawn of civilisation, we trace the thread of human innovation in the order it happened. Covering the stories of the world's greatest inventors and most powerful ideas.


Each episode is a masterclass - with all the nerdy details and side-quests that matter across science, economics, psychology and more:

  • From Maritime navigation to Interstellar exploration
  • Hammurabi’s legal code to Algorithmic governance
  • Da Vinci’s human dissection to Genome editing


Studying the patterns of history and invention shows how every world-changing idea is but a conversation between what has been and what could be.


Journey with us as we untangle the playbooks of the disruptors who change things here on earth and beyond.

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Episodes

[~1.8 Mya] - Fire: The Innovation that Forged Humanity and Sparked World Domination

Do we really control fire? While you're patting yourself on the back for lighting that barbecue, fire has been pulling the strings for 2 million years, reshaping our anatomy, rewiring our brains, and dictating our social structures. It transformed us from ape-like creatures that had a neat standing trick into the cunning apex predator of the world. Along the way, it upended both ecosystems and gender roles but most importantly, made us human. The lesser-known of fire is that an individual human ...

Jun 27, 202552 minSeason 1Ep. 4

Innovation Richter Scale: How Much Do Technology and Ideas Change World History?

How to rank the impact of innovations on humanity and how much they really changed the world. Everything seems so important these days: A new iPhone update changes EVERYTHING This war will BREAK the economy If you feed your toddler THIS, you don't deserve to be a parent... Learn to rationally understand what matters to humanity and what is just noise. It's easy to tell that the invention of Writing itself is more important than Velcro. But... Is Netflix more important than Baseball? Has TikTok c...

Jun 04, 202547 minSeason 1Ep. 3

[Stone Age] - Innovation Locks: The 5 Progress Blockers for 97% of Human History

What lies at the core of human progress? This episode sets the scene for all human innovation. For 3.5 million years, humans and our ancestors were stuck in the Stone Age. We cover: What were we busy with for 97% of our existence? Why were we so slow at innovating? How did we eventually overcome these fundamental forces? From personal pressures to global forces, we trace the blocks on human development. The answers hold many insights for today when we think about innovation and how to make progr...

May 21, 20251 hr 9 minSeason 1Ep. 2

Introduction to How to Change the World - Dissecting the History & Future of Innovation

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it" - Alan Watts This opening episode invites you on a journey, not just through time, but through perspective. From fire-starting hominids to spacefaring technologists, we are going to trace the ripples of human imagination that turned tools into empires, and sparks into systems. In this introduction episode: Set the tone for the podcast Explain what the show is and isn't Learn how we are going to navigate this journey Answer who the h...

May 20, 202530 minSeason 1Ep. 1

How to Change the World in 2 minutes

What is the best way to tackle the question "How to change the world"? Learn about our plan to dissect the history and future of innovation. This show will dissect how the world really works and the impact of the biggest inventions that lead to a step change. We'll also tell the stories of the greatest innovators from history and understand their mental models, mindsets and habits. In this promo, Host Sam Webster Harris explains in 2 minutes what he'll be doing for the next 10 years. Hosted on A...

May 19, 20252 min
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