Keyboard and Quill

Many historical threads have come together to create the data-powered world we live in today. In this very first episode of Keyboard and Quill, journey through 45,000 years of history with Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi as they begin to pull on those threads. They’ll explore how our modes of communication have evolved over time–from cave paintings to cuneiform to the printing press–and how technology has driven the relentless ac...

We pick up our story on the quickening pace of life with the Industrial Revolution. Our hosts, Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi, examine agriculture, the steam engine, the machine power of factories, the evolution of print, and the advent of the telegraph. News is getting faster, productivity continues to rise, and life won't be slowing down anytime soon.  New episodes every Tuesday from March 12-June 4. 

Keyboard and Quill is...

The pace of innovation in the field of telecommunications over the last 200 years is pretty amazing. But how did we get from drums to morse code, or from the radio to the 5G smartphone? In this episode of Keyboard and Quill (part 1 of 2), we journey through thousands of years of history with Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi as they explore how telecommunication has evolved from drum beats to the telegraph to radio. New episodes ev...

Voice was the focus of telecommunication for centuries, but now we live in a FaceTime world. How did we go from watching national broadcasts exclusively on giant, heavy, black-and-white televisions in our living rooms to 4K HDR video streaming in our pockets, practically anywhere in the world? In this episode, Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi continue the journey of telecommunication from the invention of photography to television...

Let’s travel back in time to explore the ways humans got around together (on land) from prehistoric times to the first taxis in the late 1800s. Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi begin this excavation of transportation history where it all started: with our own two feet. With the development of trade and cities, the hunter-gatherer mode of movement was inadequate for a species that needed to expand and travel. From the invention of ...

Shifting into a faster gear from our last episode, Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi continue investigating how humans have hitched rides from each other over the last 250 years. From hailing hackney coaches on filthy mud streets to boarding trams to hitchhiking with your thumb out to hailing taxis to using ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft to a possible future of self-driving cars, this is a story of land travel, communication,...

Isn’t it amazing that with just a few taps on your phone you can get a healthy, hot, delicious, multicultural meal prepared and delivered to your doorstep, all in less than an hour? And you can even track it, in real time, every step of the way. But how did we get here? And how are our eating habits changing as a result? In this episode of Keyboard and Quill, we journey through 250 years of history with Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedr...

Ever wonder how we went from computation by hand to the complex and powerful computers, data centers, and cloud of today? In this episode of "Keyboard and Quill," hosts Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi embark on part 1 (of 2) of a digital odyssey to trace the evolution of computing from its mechanical beginnings to the mainframes of the 1970s. We’ll explore historical milestones like Charles Babbage’s ambitious Differenc...

How did we go from the first slow, large, and heavy personal computers of the 1970s to the complex and powerful processors, data centers, and cloud of today? In this episode of "Keyboard and Quill," hosts Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi navigate part 2 (of 2) of a digital odyssey to trace the evolution of computing from the first PCs to the omnipresent cloud of today. Discover how the personal computer began as a rare l...

Why do nearly all stores have a loyalty program? Are they really just seeking loyalty, or is it a key aspect of how they’re using analytics to improve their business? In this episode of Keyboard and Quill, hosts Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi explore the evolution of early data analytics. They trace its development from early statistics concepts to Florence Nightingale's pioneering work in healthcare to Ronald Fisher’s foun...

How did we go from the very first databases of the 1950s to modern data analytics on massive amounts of data in the cloud? In this episode of Keyboard and Quill, Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi continue exploring the world of analytics, tracing its evolution from the mid-20th century to today's dynamic data-driven landscape. They unravel how early mainframes using punch cards and magnetic tapes laid the groundwork for the so...

In this penultimate episode of Season 1 of "Keyboard and Quill," hosts Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi delve into the world of Apache Kafka, the invisible data powerhouse behind many of the apps we use daily like LinkedIn, Uber, and DoorDash. They take us back to 2010, a pivotal year when the internet became more than just a convenience—it became a staple of daily life, with more and more homes connected to broadband an...

In this final episode of Season 1 of "Keyboard and Quill," hosts Tim Berglund and Rachel Pedreschi delve into the world of Apache Pinot, the real-time analytics technology behind many of the apps we use daily like LinkedIn, Uber, Stripe, and DoorDash. Discover how LinkedIn's seemingly minor product development choices spurred vast improvements in real-time data processing and analytics, gave birth to Apache Pinot, an...