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With a backer, a location, and the support of the ambitious Stanford Engineering Department, William Shockley recruiting efforts started in earnest.  But having burned his bridges at Bell Labs (and them some!), Shockley resorts to some unorthodox methods to find the scientists and engineers who will make up his research staff.

In this episode, William Shockley lures 20 of the country’s best and brightest young scientific minds to California to help him set-up the new company.  We meet those young men, most not even thirty years of age yet, who will be pioneers in the Silicon Valley revolution.

And we watch as the story of Shockley Semiconductor unfolds with the highest of highs when Shockley is awarded the Nobel Prize, only to tumble to the lowest depths as his “erratic behavior” alienates the research staff which has idolized him.