Tesla Roadster

Mike Daisey tells the story of the Tesla’s real Dr. Strangelove moment: inventing the ultimate super-weapon, a death ray. But did it work? The government thought it might, and the Cold War got hotter.

Tesla’s biggest innovation was introducing alternating current as the standard for modern electric power, breaking Thomas Edison’s monopoly on DC power. Author and monologist Mike Daisey performs.

Biologist Vincent Pieribone traces how scientists have been portrayed on screen – from Dr. Strangelove to Independence Day. Pieribone thinks that Hollywood’s most dangerous fantasy about “mad scientists” is that scientists have any power at all.

Tesla’s biggest innovation was introducing alternating current as the standard for modern electric power, breaking Thomas Edison’s monopoly on DC power. Mike Daisey is an author and monologuist who performs a one-man show about Tesla, and he tells us how AC/DC isn’t just a band.

At this week’s Detroit auto show, car companies are rolling out prototypes of their electric vehicles, and the plan is to have them on the road within the next few years. Will that mean an end to the experience of driving as we know it?