America: Innovation Nation

Join us for a shameless celebration of America’s brightest and best. In 2016, The Takeaway led a search for America’s greatest innovation. In this special podcast, we introduce you the nation’s top ten innovations. Here’s what you’ll find: 

• Innovation 1 – The Electric Guitar. Championed by Vernon Reid, guitarist, songwriter, composer, and founder of the rock band Living Colour.   

• How Innovation Changes Music – Storm Gloor and Benom Plumb are both part of the department of music and entertainment industry studies at the University of Colorado, Denver. Between the two of them. they have more than 20 years of experience in the music industry. They look at pivotal music moments, how America’s ability to innovate musically compares with other countries, and how new technology has impacted the industry.

• Innovation 2 – Kevlar. Ray Kelly, the former commissioner of the New York City Police Department, makes the case.

• Innovation 3 – The Hearing Aid. Richard Einhorn, an American composer, says the hearing aid has changed his life and improved the quality of life for millions of others. 

• Inside the Minds of America’s Greatest Black Inventors – Throughout American history, people of color have come up with tons of revolutionary ideas and inventions that transformed our lives. Keith Holmes, author of “Black Inventors, Crafting of 200 years of Success,” joins Sandra Morgan, granddaughter of Garrett A. Morgan, the inventor of the three-way traffic signal.

• Innovation 4 – The Sewing Machine. Deborah Nadoolman Landis, a Hollywood costume designer, says the sewing machine empowered a whole new economy run and made predominantly by women.  

• Hillary Clinton’s Innovation Visionary – Alec Ross was senior adviser on innovation for Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state. A brand new position designed to find out-of-the-box solutions to the world’s problems. 

• Innovation 5 – The Air Conditioner. Kirk Johnson, is director of the National Museum of Natural History, explains how this invention became a key tool used in the preservation of art and artifacts.

• Air Conditioning & The Rise of Ronald Reagan. Steven Johnson, author of “How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World,” explains how the AC transformed American geography, demographics and, eventually, electoral politics paving the way for President Ronald Reagan.  

• Innovation 6 – The 3-D Printer.Colin Consavage, an 11-year-old kid who made his own prosthetic hand with a 3D printer.

• Innovation 7 – GPS. Chris Catrambone, an American entrepreneur that is rescuing migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean Sea, makes his case for why the GPS is America’s greatest innovation.

• The Innovative Genius You’ve Never Heard Of: H. Joseph Gerber was a refugee from Austria, a holocaust survivor, and the man who was eventually known as the Thomas Edison of manufacturing. His son, David Gerber, discusses his biography of his father, called “The Inventor’s Dilemma: The Remarkable Life of H. Joseph Gerber.”

• Innovation 8 – The Cell Phone. Melinda Gates, philanthropist and wife of Microsoft Founder Bill Gates.

• I’m Not All Right Jack. Following rumors that the iPhone 7 won’t have the usual headphone mini-jack, a conversation about whether its wise to throw out the old ideas for the new with Leander Kahney, editor and publisher of the blog Cult of Mac.

• Innovation 9 – The Robotic Arm. Adam Ferrara, an actor, comedian, and host of Top Gear U.S.

• Innovation 10 – The Transistor. This one topped the listener poll and went on to win! Kevin Kelly, co-founder of WIRED Magazine, makes his pitch on your behalf.

• Great Ideas For A Safer Planet. With new ideas come new dangers, so it is important that safety standards modernize as quickly as technology. Tom Loughlin is executive director of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, who helped us with our Search for America’s Greatest Innovation.