The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2467: Graph Theory
Episode: 2467 Graph Theory and the Königsberg Bridge Problem. Today, the bridges of Königsberg.
Jun 05, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2467
Engines of Our Ingenuity
The story of technological progress is one of drama and intrigue, sudden insight and plain hard work. Let’s explore technology’s spectacular failures and many magnificent success stories.
This content is in service of Houston Public Media’s education mission and is sponsored by the University of Houston. It is not a product of our news team.
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Episodes
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3245: Memes
Episode: 3245 Memes, Internet Challenges, and the Selfish Gene. Today, memes.
Jun 04, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3245
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2946: Man or Monster?
Episode: 2946 Man or Monster? The Legend of the Golem and the Age of Technology. Today, what can an old legend tell us about the future?
Jun 03, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2946
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1385: Bushnell’s Submarine
Episode: 1385 How David Bushnell built his submarine for the Colonial Army. Today, a new look at a Colonial technology.
Jun 02, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1385
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1384: The Samurai Sword
Episode: 1384 The samurai sword and quality control through ritual. Today, let's talk about ceremony and technology.
Jun 01, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1384
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1383: Owning Time
Episode: 1383 In which we invent the watch and take possession of time. Today, we look at time as a new possession.
May 31, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1383
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1381: Names of Machines
Episode: 1381 Naming our machines - finding out who they are! Today, we name a new machine.
May 30, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1381
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2464: Engineering Diapers
Episode: 2464 Marion Donovan: The Woman who Engineered a Better Diaper. Today, engineering the diaper.
May 29, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2464
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1766: Doctors and Detectives
Episode: 1766 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the man who hated Sherlock Holmes. Today, our guest, Bill Monroe, from the UH Honors College, tells us about doctors and detectives.
May 28, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1766
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2577: The Frankfurter Küche
Episode: 2577 Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky's "Frankfurter Kuche" — The Birth of the Modern Kitchen. Today, UH architecture professor, Dietmar Froehlich tells us about Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky and her kitchen.
May 27, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2577
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1380: Indian Telegraph
Episode: 1380 William O'Shaughnessy and India's telegraph system. Today, telegraphy comes to India.
May 26, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1380
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1379: Frank and Peter Griffin
Episode: 1379 Frank and Peter Griffin: teaching calculus. Today, an obituary brings back memories.
May 25, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1379
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1378: S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald
Episode: 1378 The wreck of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald; "Only a lake!" Today, just a lake!
May 24, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1378
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1377: Ben Franklin and Music
Episode: 1377 Benjamin Franklin writes about music and electricity. Today, Ben Franklin talks about music.
May 23, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1377
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2463: Serendipity
Episode: 2463 Serendipity and the Inventive Mind. Today, not-so-dumb luck.
May 22, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2463
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3314: The Navier Stokes Equations
Episode: 3314 The Navier Stokes Equations in Movies, Video Games and Hurricane Forecasts. Today, the Navier Stokes equations.
May 21, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3314
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3313: Shimmering Iridescence
Episode: 3313 The Allure of Shimmering Iridescence. Today we observe shimmering "Iridescence".
May 20, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3313
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1376: Frére Jacques
Episode: 1376 Frére Jacques: The canonical hours and mechanical clocks. Today, religious practice and the mechanical clock.
May 19, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1376
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1375: Newton vs Leibniz
Episode: 1375 Leibniz, Newton, and the great calculus dispute. Today, we throw Leibniz's cat into the super collider.
May 18, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1375
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1373: Pittsburgh in 1816
Episode: 1373 Pittsburgh in 1816. Today, let's visit embryonic Pittsburgh.
May 17, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1373
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1372: The Paige Compositor
Episode: 1372 Mark Twain and the Paige Compositor. Today, meet the man who bankrupted Mark Twain.
May 16, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1372
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2461: Nanotechnology
Episode: 2461 The Growth of Nanotechnology. Today, small is big.
May 15, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2461
The Engines of Out Ingenuity 2426: Charles Dow
Episode: 2426 Charles Dow and the Creation of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Today, an "average" guy.
May 14, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2426
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2619: Space Medicine
Episode: 2619 Practicing Medicine Off the Planet; A New Physiology. Today, Astronaut Michael Barratt talks about medicine in space.
May 13, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2619
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1371: Soapy Sam and Huxley
Episode: 1371 The great evolution war at Oxford in 1860. Today, we join the first major battle in a long war.
May 12, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1371
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1370: Anno Domini 1370
Episode: 1370 Anno Domini 1370: So much going on just below the surface. Today, the story behind an arbitrary date.
May 11, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1370
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1369: Fokker’s Interrupter Mechanism
Episode: 1369 Fokker and the machine gun interrupter mechanism. Today, we meet a nice young man and his killing machines.
May 10, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1369
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 1368: Baron Grimthorpe
Episode: 1368 Edmund Beckett, Lord Grimthorpe: of clockwork and convervatism. Today, clocks for the rich and clocks for the poor.
May 09, 2025•4 min•Ep. 1368
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 2458: The Container Port of Houston
Episode: 2458 A Visit to the Container Port of Houston. Today, working on the dock of the bay.
May 08, 2025•4 min•Ep. 2458
The Engines of Our Ingenuity 3014: Measuring Almost Nothing
Episode: 3014 Measuring Almost Nothing. Today, we measure almost nothing.
May 07, 2025•4 min•Ep. 3014
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