Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson

Throughout the world and throughout history, you can find evidence of cultures enjoying cold desserts—precursors to the ice cream we love today. The desire to keep food cold led to the creation of European wine slushies in 1558 and to the transportation of ice from New England to the Caribbean in 1806. 

Soon enough, advances in production, serving and shipping methods made ice cream popular and more readily available throughout the ...

The human obsession with meat has never wavered from prehistoric times until now. However, this food once reserved for the rich and powerful has led to global problems of an unprecedented scope and has exacerbated climate change in a way that few other industries have. Finding a way to break our reliance on animal-based meat is one of the top challenges of the day, and Trailblazers is taking a deep look into some of the leading can...

This episode originally aired on August 11, 2021.

You’ve probably heard the proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” That's because for most of human history, when it came to child-care, people had the daily support of family, friends and neighbours. 

Today, that's not the reality for many young parents. Not only that, parents are raising their kids in a much more technologically complex world. So the question becomes, with a ...

 The 1902 film "A Trip to the Moon," is considered one of the earliest films to incorporate visual effects. Using double exposure stop motion animation, director George Méliès created the iconic image of a rocket skip flying directly into the Moon’s eye. This ingenious bit of visual trickery helped pave the way for the groundbreaking and award winning effects we seen in many of our favorite movies.

Today, CGI, motion capture technol...

In the early twentieth century, Evangeline Adams was the most famous fortune teller in America. Kings, actors and even bankers came to her for predictions. Though Adams was an astrologer, she wasn’t the only one predicting the future at the time. Government agencies started making predictions about the weather. As the years went by, science fiction writers and scientists predicted space travel, wind farms, hormone replacement thera...

Since its release in 1935, Monopoly has been translated into 37 languages and is played in more than 103 countries around the globe. It’s arguably the world’s most famous board game. But this iconic pastime we now associate with cutthroat capitalism had a very different message when it was first conceived. In fact, it was only transformed into the version of Monopoly we know today because the rules were tweaked and customized as it...

In 1933, a seven year old boy named Henry Molaison was knocked down by a passing bicycle. Shortly after, he started getting seizures. To fix the seizures, Henry underwent experimental brain surgery. Unfortunately, the procedure left him with amnesia from which he would never recover. Henry’s tragedy was a critical turning point for brain science and helped us discover the complex functions of learning and memory. 

Today, there is st...

In the Middle Ages, women in labor could ask for a special birthing stone to help reduce the pain. While this was likely ineffective, pain reduction techniques and the midwives who practiced them were often suspected of witchcraft. We’ve come a long way since then but when it comes to pregnancy and labor but, just as in the past, there are still many challenges for those giving birth. 

Hear how advances in medicine and midwifery hav...

Since the 1970s, people have been using digital tech to share information and connect with others. As times changed and more people gained access to computers and the internet, social networking technology changed too. Now, social networking has been replaced with social media and networks with large corporate platforms. 

Despite the ubiquity of these platforms, some of their earliest employees are creating new decentralized, open-s...

Throughout the world and throughout history, you can find evidence of cultures enjoying cold desserts—precursors to the ice cream we love today. The desire to keep food cold led to the creation of European wine slushies in 1558 and to the transportation of ice from New England to the Caribbean in 1806.  Soon enough, advances in production, serving and shipping methods made ice cream popular and more readily available throughout the...

In 1753 a Scottish doctor named James Lind published Treatise of the Scurvy where he named oranges and lemons as cures for the disease. However, it wasn’t until 1912 when researcher Casimir Funk published The Etiology of Deficiency Diseases, introducing the concept of illness as a result of something lacking in the body, a concept unknown during Lind’s initial study of scurvy.  

Since then, major vitamins and their health effects we...

Ashes, burnt eggshells, stale toast and chalk. These are just some of the ingredients used to make toothpaste throughout the centuries. And though civilizations have always been concerned with oral hygiene, the methods they used to treat dental problems weren’t always so effective and were often very painful. With the introduction of dental schools in the United States in the 1840s and through the work of pioneering dentists, denti...

Though evidence of tattooing exists worldwide in the remains of many Indigenous cultures, it was only in about the 18th century when sailors brought tattoos to Europe. The practice spread as sailors who learned to tattoo on ships began to open storefronts on land.

Now, tattoos have sailed into the mainstream thanks to the efforts of many. Tattooists aren’t just visionary artists, they’re innovators who seized opportunities to furthe...

Video replay, tracking technology and new software in sports have the power to make calls quickly, eliminate arguments between players and officials and add speed and excitement back into centuries-old games. 

As officiating technology continues to evolve, professional leagues and officials weigh the potential for improvement and accuracy with the spirit of the game. Is this a competition between humans and tech—or are they on the s...

Over four days in 1969, more than half a million people gathered on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York for what would become known as one of the most legendary music festivals of all time—Woodstock. 

Though festivals had been celebrated since antiquity, Woodstock helped cement the music festival as an important part of North American culture and a thriving industry. Hear how new ideas, technology and design have transformed festivals ...